THE  PICTURE  COMPLETION  TEST 


\ 


fay 

No.  20 


The  Picture  Completion  Test 

BY 

RUDOLF ^PINTNER  AND  MARGARET  M.  ANDERSON 
Ohio  State  University 


WARWICK  &  YORK,  INC. 

V      BALTIMORE,  U.  S.  A. 
1917 


Copyright,  1917 
By  Warwick  &  York,  Inc. 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

Progress  in  mental  testing  has  been  greatly  reduced, 
as  all  workers  in  that  field  are  well  aware,  because  of 
lack  of  standardization  both  with  respect  to  the  meth- 
ods of  administering  tests  and  also  with  respect  to 
the  methods  of  scoring  them.  Closely  allied  with 
these  lacks  is  the  further  lack  of  adequate  norms  of 
performance,  gathered  from  a  sufficient  number  of 
cases  to  indicate  not  merely  the  average  performance 
but  also  the  entire  range  of  performance  as  conditioned 
by  age,  sex,  school  training  and  what  other  factors 
may  be  influential. 

The  present  monograph  supplies  these  desired  data 
for  a  single  test — the  Healy  Picture  Completion  Test. 
By  applying  it  to  over  1500  children  the  authors  have 
been  able  to  arrive  at  an  empirically  determined 
method  of  scoring,  to  establish  norms  of  percentile 
distribution  for  each  age  from  6  to  14  and  incidentally 
to  ascertain  the  connections  between  performance  in 
it  and  sex,  social  environment  and  school  standing. 

Work  of  this  sort  is  directly  valuable  to  all  persons 
who  make  use  of  mental  tests  with  children  and  it  is 
equally  valuable  to  those  who  are  interested  in  the 
technique  of  standardizing  tests  and  in  working  out 
by  empirical  methods  the  best  rules  for  administering 
and  scoring  them.  G.  M.  W. 


372.102 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  I.        INTRODUCTION 1 

Chapter  II.       THE  TEST 9 

Chapter  III.     THE  METHOD  OF  PROCEDURE  AND  THE  SUBJECTS 

TESTED 16 

The  Procedure 

The  Subjects 

Chapter  IV.      THE  RESULTS 22 

Chapter  V.       THE  DETERMINATION  OF  THE  SCORES 52 

Percentage  Distribution 

Correlations 

Inter-correlations 

Chapter  VI.      NORMS 70 

Percentiles 

Year  Scale  Norms 

Chapter  VII.    SEX,  SOCIAL  STATUS  AND  SCHOOL  STANDING 78 

Sex  Differences 

Differences  in  Social  Status 

Racial  Differences 

School  Standing 

Chapter  VIII.  OTHER  METHODS  OF  SCORING 86 

Healy's  Method 

Number  of  Right  and  Wrong  Moves 

Chapter  IX.      THE  TIME 93 

Chapter  X.        CONCLUSION 98 


vn 


CHAPTER  I 
INTKODUCTION 

The  growing  demand  on  the  part  of  clinical  psychol- 
ogists for  a  greater  variety  of  tests  to  aid  in  mental 
examinations  and  for  adequate  standardizations  of 
tests  is  leading  to  the  introduction  of  new  tests  and 
to  more  intensive  studies  of  tests  already  in  common 
use.  The  necessity  on  the  part  of  the  practical  worker 
for  a  number  of  tests  and  the  relative  ease  with  which  a 
new  test  can  be  devised  has  resulted,  in  many  instances, 
in  the  use  of  a  test  for  practical  work  before  any 
real  analysis  or  standardization  of  the  test  has  been 
made.  To  draw  conclusions  from  any  specific  per- 
formance in  a  test  before  a  real  study  of  it  has  been 
made,  is  at  best  a  very  dangerous  procedure,  and  the 
basing  of  diagnoses  of  individual  cases  upon  the  results 
of  tests  that  have  not  been  carefully  studied  is  one  of 
the  things  which  in  some  quarters  has  helped  to  bring 
clinical  psychology  into  disrepute.  If  we  are  to  use 
a  test  for  purposes  of  differential  diagnosis,  we  must 
be  certain  that  we  know  what  is  a  normal  performance. 
We  have  no  justification  in  saying  that  any  specific 
performance  is  a  bad  performance,  say  for  a  six-year- 
old  child,  until  we  know  what  the  average  six-year-old 
can  do.  What  may  seem  to  us  as  adults  a  very  bad 
performance  may  be  the  common  six-year-old  response 
to  the  situation.  In  short,  the  careful  clinical  worker 
will  not  use  for  diagnostic  purposes  any  test  until  it 
has  been  adequately  standardized. 

The  question  of  the  adequate  standardization  of 
mental  tests  has  been  until  recently  a  somewhat  ne- 
glected phase  in  the  psychology  of  individual  differ- 
ences. Previous  workers  did  not  attempt  to  set 
standards,  but  were  primarily  interested  in  the  results 

i 


3fi  THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION  TEST 

of  tests  as  applied  to  specific  groups  of  individuals, 
and  the  main  emphasis  was  thrown  upon  the  study  of 
the  test  rather  than  upon  the  individual.  It  was  the 
test  that  was  primarily  under  consideration.  Further- 
more, great  interest  was  shown  in  the  question  as  to 
what  the  test  was  testing,  whether  memory  or  imagin- 
ation, or  other  psychical  process.  This  point  of  view 
dominates  the  earlier  work  in  the  psychology  of  tests, 
such  as  the  studies  of  Cattell  and  Farrand,1  Kirk- 
patrick,2  Woodworth  and  Wells,3  and  many  others. 

This  point  of  view  is,  of  course,  a  necessary  one  and 
naturally  precedes  the  use  of  tests  for  practical  diag- 
nostic purposes.  The  results  of  the  large  amount  of  work 
with  individual  tests  of  varying  nature  are  best  seen  in 
the  compilation  of  Whipple,4  and  the  arrangement  of 
the  tests  into  tests  of  sensory  capacity,  of  attention,  of 
perception,  etc.,  is  indicative  of  the  point  of  view. 

Paralleling  this  development  of  the  psychology  of 
tests,  and  in  recent  times  very  largely  overlapping,  we 
have  the  question  of  the  relation  of  test  to  test,  or  of 
the  relation  of  abilities  as  tested  by  any  two  or  more 
tests.  This  is  the  question  of  the  correlation  of  tests 
and  the  decided  interest  shown  in  this  aspect  of  the 
problem  may  be  traced  back  to  the  work  of  Spearman,6 

1  Cattell,  J.  McK.,  and  Farrand,  L.,  Physical  and  Mental  Measure- 
ments of  the  Students  of  Columbia  University.     Psych.  Review,  3, 
1896,  618-648. 

2  Kirkpatrick,  E.  A.     Individual  Tests  of  School  Children.    Psych. 
Review,  7:  1900,  274-280. 

3  Woodworth,  R.  S.  and  Wells,  F.  L.     Association  Tests.  Psych. 
Review  Monographs,  13:  1911,  No.  5. 

4  Whipple,  G.  M.    Manual  of  Mental  and  Physical  Tests.  2  Vols. 
Warwick  and  York,  1914-15. 

5  Spearman,  C.,  General  Intelligence,  Objectively  Determined  and 
Measured,  Amer.  J.  of  Psych.,  15:  1904,  201-293. 

Hart,  B.,  and  Speaiman,  C.,  General  Ability,  its  Existence  and 
Nature,  Brit.  J.  of  Psych.,  5 : 1912,  51-79. 

Krueger,  F.,  and  Spearman,  C.,  Die  Korrelation  zwischen  verschie- 
denen  geistigen  Leistungsfahigkeiten,  Zeitschr.  f.  Psych.,  44:  1907,  50- 
114. 


INTRODUCTION  6 

although  some  work  had  been  done  before  his  time, 
notably  by  Wissler,6  and  although  the  question  had 
been  raised  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  interest  in 
mental  measurements  by  Galton7  himself.  The  studies 
bearing  upon  the  correlations  of  tests  have  been  numer- 
ous. Among  such  studies  may  be  mentioned  the 
work  of  Burt,8  Simpson,9  Whitley,10  Brown,11  and  others. 
Although  the  results  of  this  work  are  often  contradic- 
tory, yet  the  point  of  view  emphasized  has  thrown  a 
great  deal  of  light  upon  our  knowledge  of  tests.  It  is 
a  line  of  approach  that  raises  very  definitely  the 
questions  what  the  tests  are  testing  and  what  is  the 
meaning  of  intelligence  itself. 

Neither  of  these  two  streams  hi  the  development  of 
the  psychology  of  tests  leads  us  directly  to  the  problem 
of  standardization  with  which  we  are  here  more  nearly 
concerned.  Both  of  them  are  fundamentally  con- 
cerned with  the  test  itself  or  with  the  psychical  pro- 
cess it  is  supposed  to  be  testing.  A  slight  shift  hi 
point  of  view  from  the  test  or  the  psychical  process  to 
the  individual  tested  leads  to  another  line  of  develop- 
ment in  the  history  of  mental  tests.  This  appeared 
as  soon  as  the  question  was  raised  what  light  per- 
formance in  a  test  throws  upon  the  psychological 
make-up  of  the  individual  tested.  This  slight  change 
in  point  of  view  was  a  natural  outgrowth  of  the  in- 

6  Wissler,  C.,  The  Correlation  of  Mental  and  Physical  Tests,  Psych. 
Review  Monographs,  3:  1901,  No.  6. 

7  Galton,  F.,  Inquiries  into  Human  Faculty  and  Its  Development,  1883. 

8  Burt,  C.,  Experimental  Tests  of  General  Intelligence,  Brit.  J.  of 
Psych.,  3,  1909,  94-178. 

'Simpson,  B.  R.,  Correlations  of  Mental  Abilities,  Teachers  Coll. 
Contr.  to  Educ.,  No.  53,  1912. 

10  Whitley,  M.  T.,  An  Empirical  Study  of  Certain  Tests  for  Individual 
Differences,  New  York,  1911. 

11  Brown,  W.,  Essentials  of  Mental  Measurement,  Cambridge,  Eng., 
1911. 


4  THE    PICTURE    COMPLETION   TEST 

creasing  interest  in  individual  psychology.  Binet 's 
work12  on  the  different  psychological  characteristics 
of  individuals  or  groups  of  individuals  led  him  to  apply 
tests  for  differential  purposes.  We  have  from  him 
and  his  co-workers,  Henri  and  Simon,  a  long  series  of 
studies  in  which  single  tests  or  groups  of  tests  are  used 
for  the  analysis  of  individuals.  This  work  culminated 
in  the  construction  of  a  scale  of  tests  for  practical 
diagnostic  purposes.  He  originated  the  idea  of  sys- 
tems of  tests  with  age-gradations,  which  in  turn  has 
led  to  the  idea  of  norms  of  performance  in  practical 
clinical  work.  Norms  are  demanded  for  comparative 
purposes.  One  normal  standard  is  not  enough  for 
children,  because  every  age  must  have  its  separate 
standard.  The  only  means  of  measuring  the  mental 
retardation  of  a  ten-year-old  child  is  to  compare  his 
intelligence  with  that  of  normal  children  of  different 
ages  or  of  many  ten-year-old  children. 

Various  attempts  have  been  made  to  establish  such 
a  working  basis  with  different  sets  of  tests,  but  in  most 
cases  the  investigators  seem  to  have  lost  sight  of  their 
end  in  the  desire  to  put  their  material  to  practical  use. 
This  very  fact  has  resulted  in  many  false  conclusions 
and  wrong  judgments.  No  more  striking  example 
could  be  found  than  that  of  the  Binet-Simon  scale, 
itself.  In  the  first  place,  the  separate  tests  were  not 
" tried  out"  with  large  enough  groups  of  children,  and, 
as  a  result,  many  were  misplaced.  In  the  second  place, 
lack  of  a  standard  method  of  procedure  has  led  to  diffi- 
culty in  the  comparison  of  results  of  different  workers. 

This  lack  of  adequate  standardization  was  felt  im- 
mediately after  the  scale  was  put  into  use  and  led  to 


12  Binet,  A.,  Attention  et  Adaptation,  L'annee  psychologique,  6:  1899, 
248-404.  Binet,  A.,  et  Henri,  V.,  La  Psychologic  Individuelle,  L'annee 
psychol,  2:  1895-6,  411-465. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

the  re-standardization  of  the  scale  by  Goddard.13 
This  was  the  starting  point  for  a  discussion  of  stand- 
ardization in  general,  and  has  given  us  the  work  of 
Kuhlman,14  Bobertag,15  Stern,16  Terman,17  Otis,18  and 
others.  All  this  work  was  done  mainly  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  scale  of  mental  measurement,  and  the 
discussion  centers  around  the  adequate  placing  of  a 
test  at  a  specific  age.  The  appearance  of  other  scales, 
such  as  those  of  Knox,19  de  Sanctis,20  Yerkes-Bridges,21 
and  Terman22  served  still  further  to  emphasize  the 
problems  of  standardization.  At  the  same  tune,  the 
use  of  special  tests  devised  by  different  workers  and 
used  by  them  in  practical  clinical  work  led  to  the  neces- 
sity of  norms  in  order  to  evaluate  the  performance  of 
any  individual. 

With  this  growing  demand  for  age-norms  appeared 
the  elaborate  work  of   Sylvester23  with  the  Seguin 


13  Goddard,  H.  H.,  Two  Thousand  Children  Measured  by  the  Binet 
Measuring  Scale  of  Intelligence,  Fed.  Sem.,  18:  1911,  232-259. 

14  Kuhlman,  F.,  The  Results  of  Grading  Thirteep  Hundred  Feeble- 
minded Children  with  the  Binet-Simon  Tests.  J.  of  Educ.  Psych..  4: 
1913,  261-268. 

15  Bobertag,    O.,    Ueber    Intelligenzpruefungen,    Zeitschr.  f.    ange- 
wandte  Psychology,  5:  1911,  105;  and  6:  1912,  495. 

16  Stern,  W.,  The  Psychological  Methods  of  Testing  Intelligence,  Trs. 
by  Whipple,  Ed.  Psych.  Monographs,  No.  13. 

17  Terman,  L.  M.,  and  Childs,  H.  G.    A  Tentative  Revision  and 
Extension  of  the  Binet-Simon  Measuring  Scale  of  Intelligence,  J.  of 
Educ.  Psych.,  3:  1912. 

18  Otis,  A.,  Some  Logical  Aspects  of  the  Binet  Scale,  Psych.  Rev.,  23: 
1916,  129-152,  165-179. 

19  Knox,  H.  A.    A  Scale,  Based  on  the  Work  at  Ellis  Island,  for 
Estimating  Mental  Defect,  J.  of  Amer.  Medical  Assoc.,  62:  1914,  741- 

20  de  Sanctis,  S.,  Mental  Development  and  the  Measure  of  the 
Level  of  Intelligence,  J.  of  Ed.  Psych.,  2:  1911,  498-507. 

21  Yerkes,  R.  M.,  Bridges,  J.  W.,  and  Hardwick,  R.  S.,  A  Point  Scale 
for  Measuring  Mental  Ability,  Warwick  and  York,  1915. 

22  Terman,  L.  M.,  The  Measurement  of  Intelligence,  Houghton,  Mif- 
flin  Company,  1916. 

23  Sylvester,  R.  H.,  The  Form-Board  Test,  Psych.  Review  Monographs, 
15:  1913. 


6  THE    PICTURE    COMPLETION   TEST 

Form-Board,  who  with  some  fifteen  hundred  children 
worked  out  very  reliable  norms.  Pintner's24  revision 
of  the  Knox  Cube  Test  and  Wallin's25  norms  for  the 
Seguin  Form-Board  are  further  indications  that  the 
need  for  more  reliable  standards  in  intelligence  testing 
is  being  met.  Other  indications  of  the  need  for  norms 
appears  in  the  work  of  Schmitt,26  who  arrived  at  tenta- 
tive norms  for  many  of  Healy's  tests,  and  in  the  work 
of  the  Bureau  of  Investigation  of  the  New  York  State 
Board  of  Charities.27  In  the  latter  study  the  Picture 
Completion  Test  is  included  and  reference  to  the  results 
will  be  made  in  a  later  chapter. 

The  task  of  standardization  probably  falls  under 
two  main  heads,  (1)  the  determination  of  a  method  of 
presentation  and  method  of  scoring,  (2)  the  establish- 
ment of  norms.  Under  the  first  heading  is  included  a 
specific  mode  of  procedure  that  will  be  common  to  all 
investigators  and  likewise  a  specific  method  of  record- 
ing and  scoring  results,  so^bhat  the  results  from  differ- 
ent workers  may  be  comparable.  A  change  in  method 
of  procedure  in  giving  a  test  may  alter  entirely  the 
significance  of  the  test.  As  Whipple28  has  well  said, 
"No  detail  in  the  setting  of  a  test  is  too  trivial  to  be 
neglected.  .  .  .  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  lack  of 
accordance  between  the  results  obtained  by  different 
investigators  in  the  use  of  what  is  ostensibly  the  same 
test  almost  invariably  turns  out  to  be  due  to  seemingly 

24Pintner,  R.,  The  Standardization  of  Knox's  Cube  Test.  Psych. 
Review,  22:  1915,  377-401. 

26  Wallin,  J.  E.  W.,  Age  Norms  of  Psycho-motor  Capacity,  /.  ofEduc. 
Psych.,  7:  1916,  17-24. 

26  Schmitt,  C.,   Standardization  of  Tests  for  Defective  Children, 
Psych.  Review  Monographs,  19:  1915,  No.  3. 

27  New  York  State  Board  of  Charities,  Eleven  Mental  Tests  Stan- 
darized,  Eugenics  and  Social  Welfare  Bulletin,  No.  V,  1915. 

28  Whipple,  G.  M.,  A  Manual  of  Menial  and  Physical  Tests,  Vol.  I, 
p.  5. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

trivial  variations  in  the  method  of  administering  the 
test."  The  second  heading,  the  establishment  of 
norms,  includes  two  possibilities,  either  the  establish- 
big  of  average  or  median  performances  at  each  age, 
i.  e.,  the  sp-called  age-norms,  or  the  determination  of 
performances  for  any  number  of  percentile  groups  at 
each  age.  The  former  is  the  method  adopted  by  Syl- 
vester, Wallin,  and  Pintner  in  the  articles  mentioned 
above,  while  Woolley,29  in  her  work  at  the  Bureau  of 
Vocational  Guidance  at  Cincinnati,  has  preferred  the 
percentile  method,  according  to  which  the  child  is 
compared  with  children  of  the  same  age.  The  age- 
norm  assigns  a  mental  age  to  a  child;  he  is  either  at, 
above  or  below  his  chronological  age.  His  performance 
is  compared  to  the  average  performance  of  another 
age-group.  For  example,  a  ten-year-old  child  may  be 
spoken  of  as  equalling  in  a  test  the  average  performance 
of  six-year-old  children.  This  is  the  method  made 
familiar  by  the  Binet  system  of  mental  ages.  The 
growing  criticism  of  this  method  is  based  upon  the 
theory  underlying  the  growth  of  intelligence  in  gen- 
eral, whereby  we  know  that  growth  of  intelligence  does 
not  advance  by  equal  stages  corresponding  to  the  equal 
stages  of  chronological  growth.  No  harm  is  done  so 
long  as  we  keep  strictly  to  mental  ages,  but  confusion 
immediately  arises  when  results  are  expressed  hi 
amounts  of  retardation  as  determined  by  the  difference 
between  the  chronological  and  mental  ages.  Trying 
to  avoid  this  has  led  to  the  Intelligence-Quotient 
method  of  Stern,  the  Coefficient  of  Intelligence  of 

29  WooUey,  H.  T.,  and  Fisher,  C.  E,.,  Mental  and  Physical  Measure- 
ments of  Working  Children,  Psych.  Review  Monographs,  18:  pp.  247. 
See  also  Woolley,  H.  T.,  A  New  Scale  of  Mental  and  Physical  Measure- 
ments for  Adolescents  and  Some  of  Its  Uses,  J.  of  Educ.  Psych..  6: 
1915,  521-550. 


8  THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 

Yerkes,  and  the  Percentile  Method  as  suggested  by 
Woolley.  The  last  two  methods  are  based  upon  a 
direct  comparison  of  any  performance  with  the  per- 
formances of  children  of  the  same  age. 

The  percentile  method  allows  the  comparison  to  be 
made  with  groups  of  children  of  the  same  age,  since 
the  percentile  scores  give  us  the  distribution  of  the 
ability  of  each  age-group.  It  is  this  latter  method 
that  has  been  used  in  the  computation  of  the  results 
of  this  study.  At  the  same  time,  the  fifty  percentile 
gives  us  the  norm,  or  average  performance,  for  each 
age,  so  that  age-norms  are  obtained.  It  is  the  belief 
of  the  authors  that  ultimately  the  percentile  method 
will  prevail  in  standardization.  The  drawbacks  of 
the  method  at  present  are  that  we  require  a  large  num- 
ber of  cases  at  each  age  in  order,  with  any  degree  of 
certainty,  to  mark  off  the  percentile  limits,  and  further- 
more, we  do  not  yet  know  what  significance  is  to 
attached  to  a  ten-percentile  or  twenty-percentile  or 
any  other  percentile  performance.  It  will  not  take 
long,  however,  for  us  to  learn  to  think  in  terms  of 
percentile  abilities. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  TEST 

This  test  was  devised  by  Healy1  through  the  desire 
to  secure  one  which  would  involve  the  principle  of  the 
Ebbinghaus  Combinationsmethode  and  at  the  same 
tune  eliminate  the  language  factor.  The  Ebbinghaus 
Completion  Method  is  now  largely  used  for  language 
tests  and  it  is  proving  to  be  one  of  our  best  methods 
for  measuring  language  ability.2  It  seems  also  to  be 
highly  correlated  with  well-known  tests  of  general 
intelligence.  It  seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
much  the  same  sort  of  ability  is  required  to  complete  a 
picture  as  to  complete  a  sentence.  In  both  cases  the 
essential  element  is  the  noticing  of  something  lacking 
hi  the  general  situation  and  the  supplying  of  a  missing 
part  to  complete  the  general  scheme.  In  the  Picture- 
Completion  Test,  however,  the  choice  of  a  missing 
part  is  limited  to  the  blocks  supplied  to  the  subject, 
whereas  in  the  language-completion  tests  in  common 
use  the  subject  has  the  whole  range  of  his  vocabulary 
from  which  to  supply  the  missing  word.  A  direct 
analogy  to  the  Picture-Completion  Test  would  be  a 
language-completion  test  in  which  the  subject  was 
supplied  with  a  limited  number  of  words  from  which 
he  must  select  the  word  best  suited  to  complete  the 
sense  of  the  sentence  before  him. 

The  material  consists  of  a  picture,  brightly  colored, 
measuring  10  by  14  inches  (see  Figure  1).  It  repre- 

1  Healy,  W.,  A  Pictorial  Completion  Test,  Psych.  Review,  21 :  189- 
203,  1914;  and  Healy,  W.  and  Fernald,  G.  M.,  Tests  for  Practical 
Mental  Classification,  Psych.  Review  Monographs,  13:  1911,  No.  54. 

2  Trabue,    M.   R.,    Completion   Test   Language   Scales.     Teachers 
College,  1916. 


10  THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION  TEST 


FIGURE  1 


THE   TEST  11 

sents  an  outdoor,  or  barnyard  scene  in  which  ten 
simple  activities  are  going  on.  There  is  no  obvious 
connection  between  each  activity,  but  each  is  of  such 
a  nature  as  to  appeal  to  the  childish  imagination.  A 
significant  object  necessary  for  the  completion  of  any 
one  of  the  activities  is  omitted  and  it  is  the  task  of  the 
examinee  to  find  the  most  appropriate  object.  For 
example,  two  boys  are  playing  with  a  football, one  has 
just  kicked  it  into  the  ah*  while  the  other  is  preparing 
to  catch  it.  The  significant  object,  the  football,  has 
been  omitted  and  the  blank  space  appears  between 
the  two  boys.  Or  again,  a  boy  is  standing  on  a  ladder 
plucking  fruit  from  an  apple  tree  and  dropping  it  into 
a  basket  beneath.  In  this  group  the  basket  has  been 
omitted. 

Besides  the  ten  most  appropriate  blocks  there  are 
forty  others  from  which  to  choose,  ten  of  which  are 
blank  while  the  others  bear  objects.  Each  aperture 
is  one  inch  square,  and  the  blocks  are  so  cut  that  any 
one  will  fit  in  any  space.  No  indication  of  the  correct 
solution  is  made  by  the  background  of  the  picture, 
which  is  all  of  the  same  color  and  the  same  for  every 
block.  Size,  shape  and  color  of  every  block,  then,  is 
identical,  and  it  remains  for  the  subject  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  each  situation  by  grasping  its  meaning. 
In  this  way  it  is  possible  to  get  some  measure  of  the 
child's  apperceptive  ability,  to  see  how  well  he  is  able 
to  use  his  past  experience  in  meeting  new  situations. 
As  this  very  factor  corresponds  in  the  main  to  the 
definition  of  intelligence  given  by  many  writers,  like 
Binet,  Burt,  Stern,  and  others,  we  should  expect  a 
high  correlation  with  general  ability.  The  test  differs 
from  the  ordinal^  picture-puzzle  tests  inasmuch  as  it 
demands  a  choice  on  the  part  of  the  child.  It  calls 


12  THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 

for  a  choice  reaction.  There  are  fifty  blocks  from 
which  to  choose  and  the  unfinished  situation  can  be 
completed  in  a  great  many  different  ways.  This  gives 
us  the  possibility  of  measuring  different  degrees  of 
adequacy  in  responding  to  the  situation. 

Already  a  fair  amount  of  work  has  been  done  with 
this  test.  Healy  himself  gives  the  results  of  some  five- 
hundred  cases,  including  the  following  groups:  (1) 
110  children  from  a  private  school,  (2)  five  unusually 
bright  young  children,  (3)  248  juvenile  delinquents, 
(4)  15  feeble-minded  cases,  (5)  95  Wellesley  College 
students,  (6)  33  psychopathic  individuals,  and  (7)  a 
group  of  unselected  intelligent  adults.  These  results, 
while  valuable  in  studying  various  possible  types  of 
reaction,  are  not  sufficiently  representative  for  the 
establishment  of  norms. 

Healy  says  that  the  group  of  exceptionally  bright 
young  children  did  the  test  quite  well.  Three  eight- 
year-olds  were  able  to  do  the  test  in  less  than  four 
minutes  with  a  perfect  score.  This,  he  says,  offers 
"most  convincing  proof  of  the  validity  of  the  test  for 
naive  minds."  Healy  presents  a  table  of  his  110 
normal  cases  arranged  according  to  age  and  school 
grade,  showing  the  range  of  total  errors,  the  range  of 
illogical  errors  and  the  range  of  time,  as  well  as  the 
median  total  errors  and  the  median  illogical  errors. 
Because  he  has  divided  each  age-group  into  sub-groups 
according  to  school  grade,  there  are  never  more  than 
14  individuals  in  any  one  group.  The  medians,  there- 
fore, are  of  little  value.  We  may  say  here  that  Healy 
divides  his  errors  into  two  types,  logical  and  illogical. 
He  has  selected  somewhat  arbitrarily  ten  moves  which 
he  calls  logical  errors  and  on  this  basis  his  evaluation 
of  the  performance  is  based.  A  totally  different 


THE   TEST  13 

method  has  been  used  in  this  study,  and  therefore  the 
results  are  not  comparable  with  his. 

The  performances  of  his  delinquents  correlated  well 
with  their  apparent  mentality.  In  speaking  of  the 
results  obtained  with  the  group  of  feeble-minded,  the 
brightest  members  of  the  school  at  Vineland,  Healy 
makes  the  following  statement:'  "The  feeble-minded 
group,  as  seen  under  two  conditions,  tally  well  in  their 
extremes  only.  Nearly  all  make  bad  failures.  It  is 
obvious  that  rare  individuals  among  them  have  de- 
veloped the  ability  to  apperceive  such  relationships  as 
are  demanded  by  this  test,  even  though  on  other  levels 
their  mental  equipment  is  demonstrably  poor.  This  is 
as  we,  who  observe  the  special  abilities  and  disabilities 
of  these  mental  defectives  as  well  as  normal  persons, 
would  expect.  It  is  not  to  be  anticipated  that  any 
single  test  can  be  evolved  which  will  discriminate  the 
feeble-minded." 

An  interesting  factor  is  presented  in  the  inferiority 
of  the  performance  of  the  Wellesley  students  when 
compared  with  the  school  children  and  the  higher 
classes  of  delinquents.  Here  we  find  college  students 
with  a  median  of  two  total  errors,  while  the  median 
for  both  groups  of  children  is  one.  The  percentage  of 
illogical  errors  is  64  in  the  Wellesley  group,  which  is 
noticeable  in  comparison  with  50  per  cent,  at  the  private 
school  and  approximately  36  per  cent,  with  the  de- 
linquents. These  college  records,  which  were  secured 
by  Eleanor  Gamble,  of  Wellesley,  seem  to  show  that 
this  sort  of  test  may  not  be  reliable  when  applied  to 
adults  whose  more  varied  experience  leads  to  an  un- 
limited number  of  complex  responses  which  could  not 
be  evaluated  by  the  method  of  scoring  used  by  Healy. 

The  psychopathic  cases  tested  displayed  the  ex- 
pected variability,  and  Healy  suggests  the  idea  that 


14  THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 

the  test  might  become  of  possible  use  in  diagnosing 
the  various  types  of  insanity  by  observing  the  method 
of  procedure  and  peculiar  reactions  displayed  by  such 
individuals. 

In  concluding  his  article  Healy  says:  "  We  evidently 
have  in  our  completion  picture  a  test  for  ability  pri- 
marily adapted  to  the  child  type  of  mind.  Every 
detail  of  the  meaning  has  proved  to  be  understandable 
even  by  morons.  The  performance  of  naive  indi- 
viduals of  ordinarily  good  intelligence  above  ten  years 
of  age  should  be  better  than  in  five  minutes,  and  not 
more  than  one  'illogical'  and  two  total  errors  should 
be  made.  A  worse  record  than  this  should  arouse 
suspicion  of  defect  in  mental  ability."  It  is  only  in 
this  way,  therefore,  that  Healy  has  standardized  the 
test.  A  presentation  of  our  results  worked  out  ac- 
cording to  Healy's  method  is  given  in  Chapter  VIII. 

Work  with  the  test  has  also  been  carried  out  by  the 
New  York  State  Board  of  Charities3  with  different 
groups  of  subjects.  In  all,  659  cases  were  examined, 
but  this  included  only  180  public-school  children;  the 
others  were  from  various  corrective  and  protective 
institutions.  Such  results  are  interesting  for  compari- 
son, but  not  essential  for  purposes  of  standardization. 
A  summary,  nevertheless,  may  be  given  here.  Prac- 
tically the  same  method  of  procedure  was  employed 
in  this  investigation  as  in  Healy's,  that  is,  the  kind 
and  number  of  errors  were  recorded  and  notes  were 
made  upon  the  method  of  work  and  the  kind  of  reason- 
ing used  by  the  subjects.  Perhaps  the  most  signifi- 
cant table  for  our  purpose  is  that  showing  the  results 
of  the  public-school  children.  The  following  shows 


3  New  York  State  Board  of  Charities,  Eleven  Mental  Tests  Standard- 
ized, Eugenics  and  Social  Welfare  Bulletin,  No.  V,  1915. 


THE    TEST  15 

the  average  number  of  errors  for  thirty  children  at 
each  age : 


7  8  9          10         11         12 

Av.No.errors 7.2          5.4          3.3          3.8          3.0          3.8 

A  comparison  of  these  results  with  ours  is  given  in 
Chapter  VIII.  Here  it  is  indicated  that  Healy's 
norms  are  too  high,  since  his  standard  allows  only 
two  errors  at  age  10.  Here,  however,  we  find  "the 
average  number  of  errors  at  10  years  to  be  3.8,  and 
not  even  at  12  years  does  the  average  fall  as  low  as 
two. 

These  results  and  the  results  of  our  own  cases  indi- 
cate clearly  the  necessity  for  a  more  complete  stand- 
ardization and  a  more  critical  study  as  to  the  best 
method  of  evaluating  the  performance. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   METHOD   OF   PROCEDURE   AND   THE    SUBJECTS 

TESTED 

The  Procedure 

As  Healy  says,  this  is  a  test  easy  of  presentation. 
It  appeals  to  the  child's  interest,  which  goes  far  toward 
eliminating  such  disturbing  factors  as  fear  and  self- 
consciousness.  The  child  likes  to  do  it,  and  the  whole 
performance  is  not  so  long  that  the  task  loses  its  charm 
and  fascination.  While  the  subject  is  at  work  the 
examiner  has  ample  time  to  study  his  general  attitude 
and  to  observe  any  lack  of  coordination  or  serious 
want  of  poise  that  may  be  evident. 

The  picture  should  be  placed  directly  in  front  of 
the  child  with  the  fifty  blocks  arranged  haphazardly 
above  it  as  shown  in  Figure  1.  It  was  found  that  a 
few  words  of  explanation  should  precede  the  perform- 
ance. In  this  investigation  the  same  instructions  were 
given  to  every  subject  from  the  five-year  through  the 
adult  group.  Each  was  told  to  look  at  the  picture 
carefully  and  see  what  was  happening,  or  what  the 
people  were  doing,  or  what  activities  were  going  on. 
Further,  he  was  informed  that  any  of  the  blocks  was 
just  the  right  size  to  fit  in  any  of  the  spaces,  but  that, 
since  there  were  more  blocks  than  spaces,  he  must 
select  the  ones  which  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  very 
best  with  which  to  finish  the  picture.  In  order  to 
make  certain  that  the  directions  were  fully  compre- 
hended, questions  were  asked  about  one  group  until 
the  situation  was  perfectly  understood.  Like  Healy, 
we  have  taken  for  an  example  the  wagon  group  as 
being  one  of  the  simplest  of  the  ten  and  we  have  kept 
rather  closely  to  his  words.  The  examiner  says  to  the 

16 


METHOD   OF   PROCEDURE  17 

child:  "Look  at  this  picture  and  see  what  is  happen- 
ing, look  what  the  people  are  doing.  You  are  to  fill 
in  these  empty  spaces  so  as  to  make  the  picture  look 
right,  so  as  to  make  the  best  sense.  Any  of  these 
blocks  up  here  will  fit  into  any  of  these  spaces.  Choose 
those  which  seem  to  you  the  best,  those  which  will 
make  the  best  picture."  Then,  pointing  to  the  wagon 
group,  "What  is  the  man  looking  for?  What  is  gone?" 
If  the  answer  is  "the  wheel,"  then  he  says  to  the 
child:  "That's  fine.  Find  the  wheel  among  the  other 
blocks  and  put  it  in."  If  the  correct  response  is  not 
given,  he  prompts  the  child;  if  that  is  not  successful, 
he  explains  to  him  more  fully  the  situation  and  tells 
him  to  find  the  wheel  and  put  it  in.  The  correct 
answer  is,  however,  generally  forthcoming  and  the 
child  is  told:  "Do  the  others  in  the  same  way  as  care- 
fully and  as  quickly  as  possible."  The  factor  of  speed 
is  not  emphasized,  but  it  is  always  mentioned.  When 
every  space  is  filled  and  the  subject  looks  up,  or  other- 
wise indicates  that  he  has  finished,  the  experimenter 
says:  " Now  look  it  over  carefully.  See  if  every  block 
suits  you.  See  if  it  is  exactly  as  you  want  it  and  then 
tell  me  when  you  have  finished."  The  time  was  taken 
when  the  child  indicated  he  had  finished  and  also  after 
he  had  been  allowed  to  make  corrections. 

An  exact  record  was  kept  of  every  move  made  by 
the  examinee.  Although  the  recording  would  seem  at 
first  somewhat  complex,  it  is  really  quite  simple.  At 
the  top  of  the  record  sheet  were  written  the  names  of 
the  nine  spaces;  the  tenth  was  disregarded  since  it  is 
used  as  an  illustration.  As  each  block  is  put  in,  its 
name  is  recorded  under  the  proper  heading  unless  it 
happens  to  be  the  right  block,  which  is  then  denoted 
by  a  check  mark.  If  changes  are  made,  they,  too,  are, 
of  course,  recorded.  If  a  change  is  made  after  the 


18 


THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 


examiner  has  told  the  child  to  look  over  the  picture 
carefully,  i.  e.,  during  the  last  phase  of  the  test,  then 
this  is  noted  on  the  record  blank  by  a  horizontal  line 
in|the  space  where  the  change  is  made.  Under  this 
horizontal  line  the  change  is  recorded.  A  sample  record 
appears  thus: 


Name 
Age  and  grade.  . 

B.  Window 

Dog 

Cat 

Football 

Hat 

C.  Wind. 

F 

D.  Cat 
V 

BasebaU 

y 

V 

Basket 

Log 

Chicken 

F.  Bird 

Bucket 

V 

V 

S.  Bird 

Cherries 

V 

This  sample  record  is  to  be  read  as  follows:  The  Cur- 
tain-Window block  was  put  in  the  Broken-Window 
space;  the  Dog  block,  i.  e.,  the  right  block,  was  put  in 
the  Dog  space;  the  D.  Cat  (departing  cat)  block  was 
put  in  the  Cat  space  and  this  was  later  on  changed 
for  the  right  block;  the  Baseball  block  was  put  in  the 
Football  space  and  this  was  later  changed  for  the 
Football  block,  i.  e.,  the  right  block;  the  right  block 
was  put  in  the  Hat  space;  the  Bucket  block  was  put 
in  the  Basket  space  and  in  the  second  phase  of  the 
test,  when  the  child  was  given  an  opportunity  to  make 
changes,  the  Cherries  block  was  substituted  for  the 
Bucket  block  in  the  Basket  space;  the  Log  and  Chicken 
spaces  were  filled  in  correctly;  the  S.  Bird  (standing 
bird)  block  was  put  in  the  Flying-Bird  space  and  in 
the  second  phase  of  the  test  changed  for  the  right 
block.  The  two  horizontal  lines  show  us  that  the  child 
made  two  changes  in  the  second  phase  of  the  test. 


METHOD   OF  PROCEDURE  19 

In  almost  every  respect  this  method  is  identical 
with  that  of  Healy,  with  the  exception  that  no  record  is 
made  in  this  procedure  of  the  order  in  which  the  spaces 
are  filled. 

THE  SUBJECTS 

In  all,  1538  presumably  normal  individuals  were 
tested.  This  number,  we  feel,  should  be  fairly  repre- 
sentative, and  the  results  of  an  investigation  with 
such  a  group  should  approach  a  normal  distribution. 
The  children  who  served  as  subjects  were  pupils  in  the 
Columbus  public  schools;  the  adults  were  in  the  main 
university  students. 

In  selecting  the  schools  care  was  taken  that  they 
should  lie  in  districts  which  would  represent  different 
social  classes,  in  order  that  the  children  tested  at  each 
age  should  be  representative  of  all  children  of  that 
age.  Two  schools  were  hi  communities  where  the 
majority  of  the  children  came  from  the  homes  of  pro- 
fessional and  prosperous  business  men;  one  was  in  a 
lower  middle  class  district,  and  a  fourth  in  a  part  of 
the  city  where  the  majority  of  the  children  came  from 
very  poor  families,  and  here,  too,  was  found  a  colored 
and  a  foreign  element. 

TABLE  I. 

Number  of  Subjects  Tested 
SCHOOLS 

•orer 

Additional         Total 
20 
150 
150 

2  152 

150 
150 

5  155 

150 
150 

9  109 

2  52 

18 
132 

Total..  1538 


Better 

Middle 

Poorer 

Age 

Class 

Class 

Class 

5 

18 

2 

0 

6 

99 

17 

34 

7 

84 

25 

41 

8 

82 

41 

27 

9 

66 

36 

48 

10 

68 

42 

40 

11 

74 

41 

35 

12 

88 

35 

27 

13 

109 

20 

21 

14 

70 

18 

12 

15 

35 

8 

7 

16-18 

14 

2 

2 

Ad. 

20  THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 

The  ages  of  the  subjects  ranged  from  five  to  fifteen 
years,  inclusive.  The  number  tested  at  each  age  is 
shown  in  Table  I.  The  second  column  shows  the 
number  of  children  in  the  better-class  schools;  the  third 
column  the  number  in  the  middle-class  school,  and 
the  fourth  column  in  the  poorest  school.  The  next 
column  gives  a  few  additional  cases  that  were  not  used 
in  the  determination  of  the  method  of  scoring,  because 
they  were  collected  after  this  part  of  the  work  was 
completed;  they  are  included,  however,  in  the  distri- 
bution of  scores  for  each  age  and  thus  enter  into  the 
determination  of  the  medians  and  percentiles.  The 
last  column  shows  the  total  number  of  individuals  in 
each  age-group.  It  will  be  noted  that  there  are  only 
eighteen  cases  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  eighteen. 
Since  the  number  of  these  cases  was  so  small,  and  since 
a  great  many  of  them  were  extremely  retarded  pupils 
in  the  grades,  it  was  decided  that  they  were  not  repre- 
sentative of  any  of  these  ages,  and  therefore  their 
records  have  been  omitted  entirely  in  this  work.  This 
gives  us  a  total  of  1520  cases  upon  which  the  medians 
and  percentiles  are  based.  The  small  number  of 
cases  at  Age  5  makes  the  norms  for  this  age  somewhat 
less  reliable.  We  may  say  here  that  the  usual  difficulty 
in  securing  14-  and  15-year-old  children  was  encoun- 
tered. It  was  felt  that  the  subjects  at  those  ages 
found  in  the  grade  schools  would  probably  be  con- 
sidered retarded  pupils.  Consequently,  permission 
was  obtained  to  get  an  equal  number  at  those  ages 
from  one  of  the  junior  high  schools  in  a  good  resi- 
dential section  of  the  city.  These  children,  being 
probably  slightly  accelerated,  would  tend  to  balance 
any  possible  retardation  of  those  in  the  grades.  An 
equal  number  of  unselected  children  was  tested  at 
every  age  from  six  up  to  and  including  thirteen,  which 
increases  the  reliability  of  comparisons  between  these 
ages. 


METHOD   OF   PROCEDURE  21 

The  adults,  as  mentioned  above,  were  mainly  uni- 
versity students  who  had  volunteered  to  act  as  ob- 
servers in  a  series  of  experiments,  but  the  others  were 
unselected,  presumably  normal  persons  who  could  be 
prevailed  upon  by  the  examiner  to  take  part  in  the 
experiment  with  a  fair  amount  of  seriousness.  As 
Healy  has  pointed  out,  this  is  not  a  test  adapted  to 
the  adult  mind.  Not  only  is  there  evident  that 
tendency  toward  lack  of  seriousness  among  adults 
when  taking  tests,  and  especially  this  kind  of  per- 
formance test,  but  also  the  simple  nature  of  the  picture 
calls  forth  from  mature  individuals  all  sorts  of  criti- 
cisms which  never  seem  to  trouble  the  child.  The 
nature  of  the  drawing,  with  its  lack  of  perspective, 
and  the  somewhat  exaggerated,  though  simple,  situa- 
tions present  difficulties  and  possibilities  to  the  adult 
which  sometimes  make  his  performance  little  superior 
to  the  performance  of  the  child. 

The  conditions  prevailing  while  this  test  was  being 
given  were  practically  ideal.  The  test  was  given  to 
the  children  individually  in  a  room  where  the  examiner 
only  was  present.  If  a  third  person  chanced  to  come 
in  and  the  performance  of  the  child  seemed  to  be 
influenced  in  any  way,  that  record  was  cast  out. 
Each  child  was  made  to  feel  at  ease,  and  without  ex- 
ception, unless  it  was  among  the  five-year-olds,  the 
problem  was  attacked  with  interest  and  without  self- 
consciousness.  There  seemed  to  be  great  demand  in 
every  grade  to  be  allowed  to  be  the  next  one  to  "do 
the  puzzle." 

With  such  a  large  number  of  cases  and  such  a  short 
task,  it  would  have  been  impractical  to  have  limited 
the  giving  of  the  test  to  any  particular  hour  of  the 
day.  The  experiment  was,  therefore,  performed  dur- 
ing the  regular  morning  and  afternoon  school  sessions. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  RESULTS 

As  has  been  described,  a  complete  record  was  taken 
of  every  move  made  by  the  subjects  in  completing  the 
picture.  A  portion  of  the  record  sheet  has  been  shown 
in  the  previous  chapter.  After  working  with  the 
test,  one  becomes  impressed  with  the  inadequacy  of 
the  method  of  scoring  used  by  Healy  and  other  previous 
users  of  the  test.  Healy  says:  "The  errors  are  ob- 
viously of  two  kinds,  rational  and  irrational."  That 
may  be  perfectly  true,  but  after  considerable  experi- 
mentation it  was  found  that  individuals  differed  de- 
cidedly as  to  what  should  be  called  logical  and  what 
illogical.  It  was  decided,  therefore,  to  abandon  any 
attempt  to  determine  a  priori  what  moves  are  logical 
and  what  illogical  and  to  base  the  method  of  scoring 
upon  the  frequency  with  which  the  moves  were  actually 
made.  To  this  end,  the  first  tabulation  of  the  results 
was  made  on  large  sheets  that  showed  the  number  of 
times  any  one  position  occurred.  These  numbers 
were  then  converted  into  percentages  and  transferred 
to  other  sheets  to  show  the  percentages  for  each  pos- 
sible position  at  each  age.  A  record  of  these  per- 
centages is  given  in  Tables  II  to  XLII.1 

1  In  these  tables  and  in  the  text  the  following  abbreviations  for  the 
names  of  the  blocks  and  spaces  will  be  used:  Broken  Window=B. 
Wind;  Curtained  Window=C.  Wind;  Football=F.  Ball;  BasebaU=B. 
Ball;  Flying  Bird=F.  Bird;  Departing  Cat=D.  Cat;  Sleeping  Cat=S. 
Cat;  Milk  Bottle=M.  Bottle;  Sprinkling  Can=S.  Can. 

22 


THE   RESULTS 


23 


TABLE  II. 

Broken  Window 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.'Wind. 
Dog  

15.0 

12.6 
5  3 

25.3 

6  7 

24.0 
0  7 

38.7 

44.6 

0  7 

50.0 

52.6 

52.6 
0  7 

52.0 

60.0 

51.6 

39.9 
1.5 

Cat  

1  3 

0  7 

0.2 

Football. 
Hat  

,S  0 

1.3 
1  3 

0  7 

0.7 

1  3 

0.2 
0.4 

Basket  .  . 
Log  

1.3 
0  7 

0.7 
1  3 

?  0 

0.2 
0.5 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

0.7 

2.0 

0.7 

0.7 

0.1 
0.3 

TABLE  III. 
Dog 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 

2.0 

0.7 

0.3 

Dog  

15.0 

20.0 

30.0 

50.6 

60.0 

70.0 

73.5 

86.0 

82.6 

80.0 

88.0 

78.0 

62.7 

Cat  

5.0 

4.6 

2.7 

2.0 

0.7 

1.1 

Football. 

4.0 

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

2.0 

0.9- 

Hat  

5.0 

2.0 

3.3 

4.0 

2.0 

2.6 

2.0 

1.1 

1.7 

Basket  .  . 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.2 

Log  

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.2 

Chicken  . 

4.0 

3.3 

2.0 

0.7 

0.7 

1.3 

1.2 

F.  Bird.. 

0.7 

0.7 

0.1 

TABLE  IV. 
Cat 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ll 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  
Cat  
Football. 
Hat  
Basket  .  . 
Log 

5.0 
10.0 

5.0 

0.7 

4.0 
21.3 
3.3 
3.3 
3.3 
1   S 

2.7 
25.3 
1.3 
5.3 
0.7 
1  ^ 

2.6 
44.6 
0.7 
4.0 
0.7 
1   S 

2.7 
47.4 
0.7 
2.0 

1.3 
50.0 
0.7 
2.0 
0.7 

1.3 
62.0 

2.6 

0.7 

1.3 
60.6 
0.7 
2.6 

3.3 

58.7 

2.7 

2.0 
65.0 

2.0 

2.0 
60.0 

ft 

*¥  " 

3.3 
69.2 

1.1 

0.1 
2.4 
49.1 
0.7 
3.0 
0.6 
0  4 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

5.3 

4.0 
2.0 

4.6 

3.3 
0.7 

4.6 

2.6 

2.0 
0.7 

4.7 
0.7 

2.0 

2.0 

2.2 

3.5 
0.4 

24 


THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 


TABLE  V. 

Football 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  

0.7 
?  0 

0  7 

0  7 

0.7 

0.1 
0.3 

Cat 

0  7 

0  1 

Football  . 

10  0 

1?  6 

??  6 

44  0 

S?  0 

S7  3 

S3  4 

S?  0 

64  6 

60  0 

70  0 

S9  4 

47.7 

Hat 

?  0 

?  0 

0  7 

1   3 

0  6 

Basket  .  . 
Log  . 

1.3 
1   3 

0  7 

1.3 

0.7 

0  7 

0.7 

1.0 

0.4 
0  3 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

5.0 

0.7 

0.7 

0.1 
0.1 

TABLE  VI. 
Hat 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 

0.7 

0.7 

0.1 

Dog  

2.6 

2.0 

1.3 

0.6 

Cat  

1.3 

2.0 

0.7 

0.7 

0.4 

Football. 

2.0 

2.7 

2.0 

0.7 

Hat  

10.0 

18.7 

38.0 

46.6 

64.0 

68.6 

70.0 

72.6 

82.6 

88.0 

84.0 

80.3 

61.3 

Basket  .  . 

0.7 

0.1 

Log  

0.7 

0.1 

Chicken  . 

0.7 

0.1 

F.  Bird.. 

1.3 

1.3 

0.3 

TABLE  VII. 

Basket 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ll 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 

0.7 

0.7 

0.1 

Dog  

1.3 

0.7 

1.3 

0.3 

Cat. 

4  6 

1  3 

0  7 

0  7 

0  7 

0  7 

0.9 

Football. 

5.3 

2.0 

0.7 

1.3 

1.3 

1.0 

Hat.. 

?  6 

1   3 

0.4 

Basket  .  . 

30.0 

37.4 

53.3 

64  0 

77.3 

78.6 

80  0 

84.0 

88.1 

87.0 

86.0 

85.8 

72.6 

Log  

5.0 

2.0 

0.7 

0.3 

Chicken  . 

5.0 

5.3 

2.7 

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

1.0 

1.3 

F.  Bird.. 

15.0 

7.3 

3.3 

4.6 

2.0 

4.6 

0.7 

1.3 

1.3 

1.0 

4.0 

1.1 

3.0 

THE   RESULTS 


25 


TABLE  VIII. 

Log 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ll 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 

0.7 

0.1 

Dog  

0.7 

0.7 

0.1 

Cat  

1.3 

1.3 

0.7 

0.3 

Football. 

5.0 

0.1 

Hat  

5.0 

0.7 

1.3 

0.3 

Basket  .  . 

Log  

30.0 

32.0 

40.6 

68.0 

82.6 

88.6 

88.0 

92.0 

93.4 

93.0 

96.0 

95.6 

76.2 

Chicken  . 

2.0 

0.7 

0.3 

F.  Bird.. 

2.6 

0.3 

TABLE  IX. 

Chicken 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  
Cat  
Football. 
Hat  

5.0 

5.0 
5.0 
45.0 

1.3 

3.3 
0.7 
3.3 
2.0 
4.0 
35.3 
2.6 

0.7 
2.0 
5.3 
1.3 
2.7 
2.7 
0.7 
53.3 
0.7 

0.7 
4.0 
1.3 
4.6 
0.7 
0.7 
52.0 
1.3 

1.3 

2.7 

2.0 
0.7 

68.7 
0.7 

1.3 
2.0 

1.3 

72.0 
0.7 

0.7 
4.0 

0.7 

80.7 
0.7 

1.3 
0.7 

84.8 

0.7 
6.7 

0.7 
0.7 

84.6 

4.0 
1.0 

82.0 

4.0 

88.0 
2.0 

1.1 
2.2 

90.1 

0.2 
0.7 
3.5 
0.3 
1.8 
0.8 
0.6 
69.5 
0.7 

Basket  .  . 
Log  
Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

TABLE  X. 

Flying  Bird 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog    .  .  . 

0  7 

1.3 

?  0 

0  7 

7,  0 

1  3 

0  7 

?  0 

1  1 

0.1 
0  9 

Cat   

4  6 

1  3 

?,  0 

4  7 

7,  6 

7,  0 

1  3 

3  0 

4  0 

2  2 

Football. 
Hat  

5.0 
10  0 

3.3 
?  0 

2.7 

7.  7 

0.7 
4  7 

2.0 

7,  0 

2.0 
1  3 

0.7 
0  7 

0.7 
1  3 

1.0 

2.0 

1.1 

1.6 
1.6 

Basket  .  . 
Log  

1.3 

?  0 

1.3 

1.3 
0  7 

0.5 
0.3 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

15.0 

1.3 
18.7 

29.3 

0.7 

38.7 

2.7 
45.3 

2.0 
46.0 

1.3 

55.4 

2.0 
52.0 

2.7 
60.0 

4.0 
66.0 

58.0 

73.6 

1.6 
46.1 

26 


THE   PICTURE    COMPLETION   TEST 


TABLE  XI. 

Standing  Bird 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  

Cat  
FootbaU. 
Hat  
Basket  .  . 
Log 

5.0 

0.7 

4.0 
1.3 
3.3 
2.0 
0.7 
1  3 

1.3 
0.7 

2.0 
2.6 

1.3 
1.3 
1  3 

2.0 
3.3 

0.7 

2.6 
4.6 
1.3 
0.7 

2.0 
2.0 

2.0 
3.3 
0.7 

0.7 
0.7 

4.0 

1.1 
1.1 

0.1 
1.7 
2.0 
0.6 
0.7 
0.2 
0.3 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

10.0 
10.0 

5.3 
14.7 

2.0 
25.3 

4.0 
23.3 

3.3 

32.7 

2.6 

32.7 

0.7 
36.0 

2.6 
30.6 

1.3 

27.4 

24.0 

26.0 

22.0 

2.2 
26.9 

TABLE  XII. 

Curtained  Window 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  

35.0 

47.3 
1.3 
1.3 

1.3 
0.7 
1.3 
0.7 

54.0 
1.3 

0.7 
1.3 

0.7 
2.0 

58.7 
0.7 

2.0 

50.6 
0.7, 

49.3 
0.7 

41.4 

0.7 
0.7 
0.7 

42.6 
1.3 

42.6 
0.7 

0.7 

42.0 

38.0 

44.0 

47.1 
0.4 
0.1 
0.1 
0.3 
0.1 
0.1 
0.1 
0.8 

Cat  
FootbaU. 
Hat  

Basket  .  . 
Log 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

TABLE  XIII. 

Departing  Cat 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 

Dog  

5.0 

3.3 

3.3 

4.7 

5.3 

1.3 

4.0 

0.7 

2.7 

6.0 

1.1 

3.1 

Cat 

10  0 

Q  4 

10  7 

10  7 

13  3 

7  1 

10  0 

8  7 

7  0 

10  0 

?0  8 

10  5 

FootbaU. 

1.3 

0.7 

0.3 

Hat  

5.0 

4.6 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

4.0 

1.1 

1.1 

Basket  .  . 

2.0 

1.3 

0.7 

1.3 

0.7 

Log  

Chicken  . 

1.3 

2.7 

2.0 

3.3 

0.7 

1.3 

2.6 

r0.7 

2.0 

2.0 

1.1 

1.7 

F.  Bird.  . 

1.3 

0.7 

0.2 

THE    RESULTS 


27 


TABLE  XIV. 

Sleeping  Cat 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ll 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  
Cat  

1.3 
7  0 

1.3 
1  3 

3  3 

0.7 
1  3 

1.3 
4  0 

0.7 
6  0 

3  3 

3  3 

7  0 

8  0 

0.5 
3  0 

Football. 
Hat  

1.3 

7  0 

1.3 

0  7 

0  7 

0.3 
0  3 

Basket  .  . 
Log  

5.0 

0.7 

?  6 

1.3 

0  7 

0  7 

0.3 
0  4 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

5.0 

3.3 

1.3 
1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

2.0 
0.7 

0.7 

1.1 

0.9 
0.3 

TABLE  XV. 

Baseball 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 

5.0 

0.7 

0.7 

0.2 

Dog  

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

2.0 

0.5 

Cat  

0.7 

0.1 

Football. 

20.0 

19.3 

30.6 

31.3 

32.0 

29.3 

35.4 

39.4 

27.4 

33.0 

24.0 

33.0 

30.6 

Hat  

0.7 

1.3 

1.3 

0.7 

1.3 

0.5 

Basket  .  . 

1.3 

1.0 

0.2 

Log  

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

1.3 

0.3 

Chicken  . 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.2 

F.  Bird.. 

0.7 

0.1 

TABLE  XVI. 
Baby 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8  ' 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

13 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  . 

10  0 

2.6 

S  3 

0.7 

3  3 

5  3 

6  0 

0.7 
7,  6 

0.7 
4  6 

7  0 

0  7 

1.0 
1  0 

7  7 

0.5 
3  4 

Cat  .  . 

10  0 

?  6 

S  3 

8  7 

6  7 

8  0 

6  7 

8  0 

7  3 

4  0 

6  0 

7  7 

6  2 

Football. 
Hat  
Basket  .  . 
Log  

5.0 

1.3 
3.3 
2.6 
7  6 

4.0 

3.3 

1.3 
7.3 
1.3 
1  3 

6.7 

6.0 
2.0 

0.7 
5.3 
2.6 
1  3 

4.6 

0.7 
0.7 

1.0 
4.0 

2.0 

2.0 

3.3 

0.8 
4.5 
1.0 
0  5 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

3.3 
0.7 

5.3 
1.3 

2.6 

1.3 

3.3 

1.3 

1.0 

2.2 

1.9 
0.3 

28 


THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 


TABLE  XVII. 

Hatchet 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  
Cat  
Football. 
Hat  .  . 

5.0 
5.0 

2.0 

3.3 
4  6 

2.7 
1  ^ 

4.6 

1.3 
0  7 

2.7 
0  7 

0  7 

0.7 
0  7 

1.3 

0.7 

3.0 

1.0 

1.8 

0.6 
0.9 

Basket  .  . 
Log  ... 

10.0 
10  0 

4.6 
16  0 

2.7 
??  0 

1.3 
6  7 

1.3 

7  3 

6  7 

1.3 

s  s 

3  3 

0.7 

4  7 

4  0 

3  3 

1.4 
8.0 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

5.0 

1.3 

2.0 

4.0 

0.7 

4.0 

2.6 

0.7 

0.7 

1.0 

2.0 

1.1 

2.0 

TABLE  XVIII. 

Mouse 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ll 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  
Cat  
FootbaU. 
Hat  
Basket  .  . 
Los 

5.0 
5.0 

2.0 
4.6 
0.7 
0.7 
1.3 
2.0 
?  0 

5.3 
1.3 
1.3 
4.0 

0  7 

2.0 
0.7 

4.0 
1.3 

2.7 
0.7 

1.3 
0.7 

0.7 
0.7 

4.0 

1.3 
2.6 

0.7 

0.7 

5.3 

2.7 
2.0 

1.0 
1.0 

6.0 

2.2 

0.2 
2.1 
0.5 
0.3 
3.2 
0.4 
0.3 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.  . 

0.7 
1.3 

2.0 

5.3 
1.3 

1.3 

2.0 

1.3 
0.7 

0.7 

2.0 

1.1 

1.5 
0.4 

TABLE  XIX. 

Cage 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ll 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  

Cat  . 

5.0 
5.0 

25.0 

2.6 
2.6 
2.0 
2.0 
2.0 
2.0 
0.7 
5.3 
30.0 

2.0 

2.0 
5.8 
0.7 
2.0 
0.7 
1.3 
3.3 
14.7 

4.0 
1.3 
0.7 
2.0 
0.7 
0.7 

4.0 
15.3 

1.3 
0.7 
1.3 
0.7 
0.7 

1.3 

10.7 

0.7 
2.0 
0.7 
0.7 
0.7 
0.7 

1.3 
7.3 

1.3 
1.3 

1.3 
0.7 

0.7 
0.7 
2.6 

2.6 

0.7 
0.7 
0.7 

0.7 
4.6 

0.7 

1.3 
2.0 

8.7 

1.0 
1.0 
1.0 

3.0 

2.0 
4.0 

1.1 

3.3 

1.5 
1.2 
1.2 
1.1 
1.0 
0.5 
0.3 
1.7 
10.5 

FootbaU. 
Hat  

Basket  .  . 
Log  

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.  . 

THE    RESULTS 


29 


TABLE  XX. 
Blank 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ll 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.Wind. 

15.0 

7.3 

7.3 

6.0 

4.0 

0.7 

2.0 

2.0 

1.0 

3.2 

Doe 

IS  0 

4  0 

3  S 

S  S 

7  3 

0  7 

S  S 

?  6 

0  7 

1  0 

4  0 

3  3 

3.2 

Cat  

5.0 

2.0 

3.3 

1.3 

2.0 

1.3 

1.3 

0.7 

2.0 

1.3 

Football. 

10.0 

2.0 

2.0 

2.0 

0.7 

1.1 

0.9 

Hat  

5.0 

1.3 

1.3 

1.3 

1.3 

1.3 

0.7 

2.0 

1.3 

2.0 

2.2 

1.4 

Basket  .  . 

5.0 

3.3 

0.7 

1.3 

2.0 

1.3 

1.0 

2.0 

1.1 

1.2 

Log  

5.0 

0.7 

1.3 

3.3 

2.7 

0.7 

0.7 

1.3 

0.7 

3.0 

2.0 

1.5 

Chicken  . 

5.0 

0.7 

2.0 

1.3 

2.0 

1.0 

4.0 

1.1 

0.9 

F.  Bird.. 

5.0 

2.0 

2.7 

2.0 

2.6 

0.7 

1.0 

2.0 

1.2 

TABLE  XXI. 

Clock 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  

Cat  

10.0 
10  0 

5.3 
2.6 
0  7 

2.0 
2.7 

0.7 
1.3 

0.7 

1.3 
0.7 

0.7 

1.3 

1.2 
0.9 

0  2 

Football  . 
Hat  
Basket  .  . 
Log  

3.3 
3.3 
0.7 
?  6 

1.3 

0.7 

?  0 

2.0 

0.7 
0.7 

0.7 

1.0 

0.5 
0.4 
0.4 
0.5 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

5.0 

0.7 
0.7 

0.7 

0.7 
0.7 

0.3 
0.1 

TABLE  XXII. 

Sprinkling  Can 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.Wind. 
Dog  
Cat  
Football  . 
Hat 

5.0 

0.7 

0.7 
1.3 

1  3 

2  0 

0.7 

?  6 

0.7 

0  7 

0.7 
0.7 

1.0 

1.1 

0.1 
0.3 
0.2 
0.1 
0  7 

Basket  .  . 
Log  .  . 

1.3 
1  S 

1.3 
0  7 

1.3 

0  7 

0  7 

0  7 

0.4 
0  3 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

2.6 

2.0 

0.6 

30 


THE   PICTURE    COMPLETION   TEST 


TABLE  XXIII. 

Glove 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

B 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog.. 

1.3 

0  7 

0.1 
0  1 

Cat  
Football. 
Hat  

0.7 
0.7 

0  7 

0.7 

1.3 
0  7 

0.7 

0  7 

0.7 

0  7 

0.7 
0  7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 
1  S 

1.1 

0.3 
0.5 
0  5 

Basket  .  . 
Log  
Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

5.0 

0.7 
0.7 

0.7 
0.7 
0.7 

0.7 

2.0 

0.3 
0.3 
0.1 

TABLE  XXIV. 
Bottle 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dos: 

5.0 

2.6 
1  3 

0  7 

0  7 

0  7 

0  7 

0  7 

0  7 

1  0 

0.3 
0  6 

Cat  
Football. 
Hat 

5.0 
5.0 

5  0 

4.0 
2.0 
?  0 

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 
0.5 
0  3 

Basket  .  . 
Log  
Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.  . 

5.0 

0.7 
0.7 
0.7 

0.7 
1.3 

0.1 
0.1 
0.3 

TABLE  XXV. 

MiWBottk 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Toral 

B.  Wind. 

0.7 

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

0.3 

Dog  

3.3 

1.3 

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

Cat  

5.0 

10.0 

9.4 

4  6 

5,3 

1  3 

?.  6 

5,3 

7  3 

5  0 

4  4 

5.5 

Football. 

1.3 

1.3 

0  3 

Hat  

5.0 

0.7 

2.0 

0.7 

0,4 

Basket  .  . 

0.7 

0.1 

Log  
Chicken  . 

10.0 

0.7 

0.7 
0.7 

0.7 

0,7 

0.3 
0.2 

F.Bfrd.. 

0.7 

0.1 

THE   RESULTS 


31 


TABLE  XXVI. 

Cup 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  

5.0 

0.7 
?  0 

0.7 
0  7 

0  7 

0.2 
0.3 

Cat  
Football  . 
Hat  

15.0 
5.0 

2.0 
0.7 
1  3 

2.0 
0.7 

2.0 

0  7 

1.3 

2.6 

0.7 

1.3 

1.0 

1.8 
0.1 
0.3 

Basket  .  . 
Log  
Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

5.0 

2.0 
1.3 
0.7 

1.3 
0.7 
0.7 
0.7 

0.7 

0.7 
0.7 

0.3 
0.3 
0.4 
0.2 

TABLE  XXVII. 

Shoe 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog.  .  . 

?  6 

?  6 

1    1 

?  0 

0  7 

0  7 

1  0 

1  1 

Cat   . 

1   1 

0  7 

0  7 

1    1 

0  4 

Football  . 
Hat  

1   1 

0.7 

0  7 

1  1 

0.7 

0.1 
0  3 

Basket  .  . 
Log  

5.0 

2.0 
?  0 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.5 
0  3 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

5.0 

0.7 

1.3 

0.7 

0.3 
0.1 

TABLE  XXVIII. 

Flowers 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  
Cat  
Football  . 
Hat  

5.0 

0.7 

2.6 
2.0 
4.0 
?  0 

0.7 
2.7 
0.7 

?  0 

0.7 
1.3 
1.3 

0  7 

1.3 
0.7 
0.7 
0.7 

0  7 

0.7 
1.3 
0.7 

0  7 

0.7 
0.7 

1  3 

0.7 

0.7 

0  7 

2.0 
1.0 

1  0 

0.7 
1.1 
0.6 
0.5 
0  9 

Basket  .  . 
Log 

S  0 

0  7 

0  7 

0  ? 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

0.7 
2.0 

1.3 
1.3 

0.7 

1.0 

0.3 
0.1 

32 


THE    PICTURE    COMPLETION   TEST 


TABLE  XXIX. 

Pumpkin 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ll 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  
Cat  

5.0 

1.3 

3.3 
0  7 

1.3 

7  0 

1.3 

0  7 

1  3 

0  7 

0  7 

0.2 
0.6 
0  7 

Football. 
Hat  
Basket  .  . 
Log  

15.0 
5.0 
5.0 

2.6 
2.6 
3.3 
3  ,3 

6.0 
2.0 
2.0 
?  0 

2.0 
1.3 
1.3 

3  3 

2.0 
2.7 

0  7 

0.7 
1.3 

0.7 
0.7 

2.0 

0.7 

1.1 

1.9 
1.2 
0.7 
0  9 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

5.0 

4.6 

0.7 
1.3 

0.7 
0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

2.0 

0.8 
0.3 

TABLE  XXX. 

Candle 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 

2.6 

1.2 

2.0 

0.7 

0.7 

2.2 

0.9 

Dog 

S  0 

?  6 

0  7 

0  4 

Cat  

0  7 

0  7 

0  7 

0.2 

FootbaU. 

2.0 

0.7 

2.0 

0.5 

Hat  

2.6 

1.3 

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

Basket  .  . 

0.7 

0.1 

Log  
Chicken  . 

0.7 

1.3 

0.7 

0.3 

F.  Bird.. 

2.6 

0.3 

TABLE  XXXI. 
Fish 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 

0.7 

0.1 

Dog  

2.6 

0.7 

0.4 

Cat  

5.0 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.4 

FootbaU. 

1.3 

0.7 

0.2 

Hat  

,S  0 

4  0 

7  0 

0.7 

Basket  .  . 

5.0 

0.7 

0.7 

0.2 

Log  
Chicken  . 

2.0 
4.0 

1.3 
0.7 

2.0 

0.7 

0.3 
0.9 

F.  Bird.. 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.3 

THE   RESULTS 


33 


TABLE  XXXII. 

Knife 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  
Cat  . 

0  7 

0.7 
0.7 
?  0 

0  7 

0  7 

0  7 

0  7 

0  7 

0.1 
0.1 
0.6 

Football. 
Hat  
Basket  .  . 
Log  

10  0 

1.3 
0.7 
0.7 
?  6 

1.3 

0.7 

0  7 

1  3 

0.1 
0.1 
0.3 
0  6 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

1.3 

0.7 

0.2 

TABLE  XXXIII. 

Fruit 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.3 

Dog  

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.3 

Cat  

5.0 

5.3 

2.7 

1.3 

2.7 

1.3 

2.0 

1.3 

1.3 

1.0 

2.0 

1.1 

2.1 

Football. 

3.3 

0.7 

0.7 

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

Hat  

5.0 

1.3 

2.0 

0.4 

Basket  .  . 

5.0 

2.0 

2.0 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

Log  

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

0.3 

Chicken  . 

1.3 

0.7 

2.0 

0.7 

0.7 

2.0 

0.6 

F.  Bird.. 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.2 

TABLE  XXXIV. 

Cherries 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ll 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 

Dog  

1.3 

2.0 

1.3 

0.7 

1.3 

0.7 

Cat  

5.0 

0.7 

0.1 

Football. 

4.0 

4.0 

4.0 

2.7 

4.0 

3.3 

2.0 

4.0 

4.0 

3.3 

3.0 

Hat  

1.3 

0.1 

Basket  .  . 

10.0 

15.3 

12.7 

14.7 

10.7 

9.3 

6.0 

10.0 

4.0 

8.0 

8.0 

9.9 

10.0 

Log  

0.7 

1.1 

0.1 

Chicken  . 

2.6 

2.6 

6.7 

4.7 

3.3 

2.0 

1.3 

1.3 

1.0 

2.6 

F.  Bird.. 

5.0 

3.3 

6.0 

4.6 

6.0 

3.3 

2.0 

5.3 

1.3 

5.0 

4.0 

4.0 

34 


THE    PICTURE    COMPLETION  TEST 


TABLE  XXXV. 

Stool 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 

1.3 

0  7 

?.  0 

0.3 

Dog  

10.0 

3.3 

6.0 

1.3 

0.7 

2.6 

2.0 

0.7 

2.0 

1.9 

Cat 

S  0 

2  6 

5  3 

2  0 

2  0 

0  7 

1  3 

1  3 

1  3 

1  0 

4  0 

1  9 

FootbaU. 

0.7 

0^7 

0.1 

Hat  

2.6 

0.7 

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

0.6 

Basket  .  . 

2.0 

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

1.3 

2.6 

1.3 

2.0 

1.0 

1.3 

Log  

5.0 

4.0 

7.3 

6.7 

3.3 

?,  6 

0  7 

2  0 

1  3 

2.9 

Chicken  . 

5.0 

1.3 

0.7 

0.3 

F.  Bird.. 

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

1.3 

0.3 

TABLE  XXXVI. 

Purse 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ll 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Doe 

0  7 

0  1 

Cat  

1   1 

1   3 

0  7 

0  3 

FootbaU. 
Hat  
Basket  .  . 
Log  .... 

5.0 

S  0 

1.3 
5.3 

0  7 

2.0 
4.7 

0  7 

2.6 

4.7 

4.0 

0.7 

5.3 

0  7 

2.0 

2.0 

2.0 

2.2 

0.4 

3.5 

0  3 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.  . 

0.7 
0.7 

0.7 

0.1 
0.1 

TABLE  XXXVII. 

Books 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  

Cat.  . 

5.0 
10.0 

0.7 
2.0 
1  S 

0.7 
0.7 
1  3 

1.3 

1.3 

0  7 

0  7 

2.0 
0  7 

0.7 

1.3 
0  7 

0.3 
1.1 
0  5 

Football. 
Hat  
Basket  .  . 
Log  
Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

5.0 
10.0 

1.3 
2.6 
2.0 

1.3 

3^3 
2.0 

1.3 

1.3 
3.3 
0.7 

0.7 

2.7 
0.7 
0.7 

0.7 
0.7 

0.7 
0.7 

0.7 
2.6 
0.7 

1.3 
0.7 
0.7 

1.0 

1.1 

1.2 
1.5 
0.6 
0.1 
0.3 
0.1 

THE   RESULTS 


35 


TABLE  XXXVIII. 

Bucket 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog.. 

0  7 

1  ^ 

?  6 

0  5 

Cat  
Football. 
Hat  
Basket  .  . 
Log  

0.7 
0.7 
2.0 
4.0 

0  7 

1.3 

1.3 
4.7 
0  7 

2.0 
0.7 

2.6 

0.7 
2.6 

0.7 
0.7 
?  0 

0.7 
0.7 
2.0 

0.7 
0.7 

0.7 

2.0 

1.0 

2.0 

2.2 

0.5 
0.3 
0.6 
2.4 
0  1 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

5.0 

2.6 

0.3 

TABLE  XXXIX. 
Tie 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ll 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog 

2  0 

1  3 

0  7 

1  3 

0  6 

Cat  
Football. 
Hat  . 

5.0 

1.3 
?  0 

0.7 
0.7 
1  3 

2  6 

0  7 

1  3 

1  3 

1   1 

0.2 
0.1 
1  0 

Basket  .  . 
Log  
Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

5.0 

0.7 
1.3 
1.3 
1.3 

0.7 

0.7 
0.7 

1.3 

2.0 

0.2 
0.2 
0.7 
0.1 

TABLE  XL. 

Scissors 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 

0.7 

1.3 

0.2 

Dog  

1.3 

1.3 

0.3 

Cat  

5.0 

0.7 

0.2 

Football. 

5.0 

0.1 

Hat 

5  0 

1  3 

1  3 

0  3 

Basket  .  . 

5.0 

0.7 

0.7 

0.2 

Log  
Chicken  . 

5.0 

2.0 

0.7 

0.3 

F.  Bird.. 

0.7 

0.7 

0.1 

36 


THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 


TABLE  XLI. 

Pipe 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Total 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  

Cat 

5.0 

0  7 

0.1 
0  i 

Football. 
Hat.. 

5.0 

0.7 

0.7 

1  3 

0.7 

0.3 
0  1 

Basket  .  . 
Log.... 

0.7 
1  3 

0.7 
2  6 

0  7 

0.1 
0  5 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

0.1 
0.1 

TABLE  XLII. 
No  Block 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Toral 

B.  Wind. 
Dog  
Cat  
Football. 
Hat 

0.7 
0  7 

0.7 
1.3 

0  7 

0.7 
0.7 

0.7 

0.7 
0.7 

0.7 

2.0 

1.0 

1.1 
1.1 

1  1 

0.6 
0.5 

0  2 

Basket  .  . 
Log.  . 

1  S 

0  7 

0.7 

0.1 
0  2 

Chicken  . 
F.  Bird.. 

0.7 

0.7 

0.1 
0.1 

The  tables  show  the  percentages  for  each  one  of  the 
41  blocks  for  each  age-group.  The  horizontal  rows 
give  the  name  of  the  spaces  and  the  vertical  columns 
the  percentages  at  each  different  age.  Table  II  for 
the  B.  Wind,  block  shows  every  position  in  which  this 
block  was  placed  and  the  percentage  of  cases  in  which 
it  was  placed  in  such  position  at  each  age.  The  table 
is  to  be  read  as  follows:  the  B.  Wind,  block  was  placed 
in  the  B.  Wind,  space  (i.  e.,  the  correct  position)  by 
15  per  cent,  of  the  five-year-olds,  by  12.6  per  cent  of 


THE   RESULTS  37 

the  six-year-olds,  by  25.3  per  cent  of  the  seven-year- 
olds,  and  so  on.  Continuing  to  Line  Two,  we  note 
that  the  B.  Wind,  block  was  placed  in  the  space  for 
the  dog  by  5.3  per  cent  of  the  six-year-olds,  by  6.7 
per  cent  of  the  seven-year-olds,  by  0.7  per  cent  of  the 
eight-year-olds,  and  so  on.  The  last  vertical  column 
headed  " Total"  gives  the  results  for  the  combination 
of  all  the  age-groups  and  includes  1479  cases.  The 
percentages  do  not  total  100  because  only  9  of  the  41 
blocks  can  be  used.  Some  of  the  blocks,  e.  g.,  Scis- 
sors (Table  XL)  were  used  very  seldom.  From  these 
41  tables  every  possible  type  of  move  and  the  number 
of  times  such  a  move  occurred  can  be  seen. 

Tables  II  to  X  inclusive  deal  with  the  nine  correct 
moves  for  the  spaces.  We  note  a  fairly  steady  in- 
crease in  the  percentages  from  age  to  age.  This 
means  that  as  we  proceed  to  the  higher  ages  an  in- 
creasingly greater  number  of  subjects  are  putting  the 
correct  block  in  its  correct  space.  There  is  obviously 
a  better  and  better  performance  at  each  age.  Further- 
more, we  note  that  the  nine  blocks  in  question  are 
never  inserted  in  any  other  space  a  greater  number  of 
times  than  they  are  inserted  in  the  correct  space. 
These  nine  blocks,  therefore,  have  been  shown  by 
observers  at  all  ages  to  be  better  adapted  to  the  space 
for  which  they  were  originally  designed  than  for  any 
other  space.  In  this  particular,  at  least,  the  actual 
performance  of  children  at  all  ages  corroborates  the 
original  design  of  the  test.  There  also  seems  to  be  a 
greater  amount  of  scattering  in  the  lower  than  in  the 
higher  ages. 

Coming  now  to  Tables  XI,  XII,  XIII,  XV,  XVI, 
XVII,  XVIII,  XIX,  and  XXV,  we  note  a  series  of 
blocks  that  seem  to  be  preferred  for  a  specific  space 
by  a  fairly  large  percentage  at  each  age.  For  example, 


38  THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 

in  Table  XII  the  C.  Wind,  is  put  in  the  B.  Wind, 
space  by  a  fairly  large  percentage  of  observers  at  all 
ages.  The  same  holds  true  of  the  S.  Bird  and  Cherries 
in  the  F.  Bird  space,  of  the  D.  Cat  in  the  Cat  space,  of 
the  Baseball  in  the  Football  space,  of  the  Baby  in  the  Cat 
or  Hat  space,  of  the  Hatchet  in  the  Log  space,  of  the 
Cage  in  the  F.  Bird  space,  of  the  M.  Bottle  in  the  Cat 
space,  of  the  Purse  in  the  Hat  space,  of  the  Cherries 
in  the  Basket  space,  of  the  Cat  in  the  Chicken  space 
and  the  Chicken  in  the  Cat  space.  In  some  of  these 
cases  the  percentage  is  very  high,  notably  the  C.  Wind 
in  the  B.  Wind  space,  indeed  at  some  ages  a  larger 
percentage  of  subjects  choose  this  block  rather  than 
the  correct  one.  The  percentage  of  the  total  number 
of  subjects  is  47.1  or  a  little  below  half.  None  of  the 
other  cases  mentioned  reaches  such  a  high  percentage. 
The  reason  for  this  group  of  cases  is  obvious  from 
an  inspection  of  the  test.  The  C.  Wind  is  put  in  the 
B.  Wind,  space,  because  the  house  is  obviously  lack- 
ing a  window  and  the  subject  has  failed  to  note  the 
activity  of  the  boy  who  has  thrown  a  stone  or  the 
broken  pieces  of  glass  or  the  enraged  man,  or  if  he 
has  noticed  these  things,  he  has  failed  to  combine 
them  into  a  story.  The  D.  Cat  is  put  in  the  Cat  space 
because  the  child  is  obviously  offering  milk  to  a  cat 
but  the  subject  has  not  noticed  that  there  is  a  more 
appropriate  cat  than  the  one  that  is  walking  away. 
The  substitution  of  the  Baseball  for  the  Football  is  again 
obvious  and  not  entirely  illogical.  The  Baby  in  the 
Cat  space  is  explicable  by  the  common  association  of 
baby  and  milk,  and  in  the  Hat  space  by  the  idea  that 
the  girl  is  very  much  concerned  about  the  crying  baby. 
The  Hatchet  in  the  Log  space  is  due  to  the  association 
between  hatchets  and  logs.  The  Cage  in  the  F. 
Bird  space  seems  merely  due  to  the  association  be- 


THE    RESULTS  39 

tween  one  cage  and  another.  The  girl  may  be  trans- 
ferring the  bird  from  one  cage  to  the  other.  The 
M.  Bottle  for  the  Cat  seems  again  to  rest  upon  a  mere 
association  between  milk  and  milk  bottle.  The  S. 
bird  in  the  F.  Bird  space  is  due  to  overlooking  the  fact 
that  there  is  a  more  logical  block  (the  F.  Bird)  for 
that  space,  and  the  Cherries  in  this  same  space  is  sup- 
posed to  mean  that  the  fruit  is  dropping  from  the 
tree,  while  the  subject  fails  to  notice  the  activity  of 
the  girl  with  the  cage.  The  Purse  in  the  Hat  space 
is  interpreted  as  meaning  that  the  wind  has  blown 
the  girl's  purse  away.  The  Cherries  in  the  Basket 
space  means  that  the  subject  fails  to  see  that  the  tree 
is  an  apple  tree.  The  Cat  in  the  Chicken  space  is 
taken  for  a  chicken  frightened  at  a  cat.  The  Chicken  in 
the  Cat  space  is  interpreted  as  the  girl  feeding  a  chicken. 
These  cases,  therefore,  are  all  easily  understandable, 
and  occur  because  the  subject  has  failed  to  note  that 
there  is  another  block  that  would  make  a  still  better 
completion  of  the  picture  than  the  one  he  has  chosen. 
If  we  were  to  make  a  classification  of  errors  into  logical 
and  illogical  ones,  as  Healy  has  suggested,  it  would 
seem  to  us  that  these  cases  are  the  ones  to  merit  the 
former  title.  Healy  gives  nine  moves  as  logical  errors. 
We  have  discussed  above  the  thirteen  most  frequent 
errors  of  our  subjects  and  according  to  our  point  of 
view,  these  ought  to  be  called  the  logical  errors,  if  a 
classification  into  logical  and  illogical  errors  is  to  be 
made.  Six  of  our  " logical"  errors  correspond  to 
Healy's,  namely  the  C.  Wind,  for  the  B.  Wind.,  the 
Baseball  for  the  Football,  the  S.  Bird  for  the  F.  Bird, 
the  D.  Cat  for  the  Cat,  the  Purse  for  the  Hat,  and  the 
Hatchet  for  the  Log.  We  have  eight  " logical"  errors 
that  are  not  mentioned  by  Healy.  They  are  the  Baby 


40  THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 

in  the  Cat  and  Hat  spaces,  the  Cage  in  the  F.  Bird 
space,  the  M.  Bottle  and  Chicken  in  the  Cat  space, 
the  Cherries  in  the  Basket  and  F.  Bird  spaces,  and  the 
Cat  in  the  Chicken  space.  Two  of  Healy's  logical 
errors  do  not  occur  in  our  list  of  the  61  most  frequent 
moves  to  be  discussed  later,  and  these  are  the  Baby  in 
the  Basket  space — a  move  made  by  but  one  per  cent, 
of  the  total,  i.  e.,  by  only  15  of  1479  people;  the  Mouse 
in  the  Cat  space,  which  occurs  only  in  0.54  per  cent 
of  the  total,  i.  e.f  8  cases.  These  two  so-called  logical 
moves  evidently  did  not  seem  logical  to  our  subjects. 
These  do  not  appear  at  all  in  our  list  of  common  moves, 
since  the  number  who  make  these  moves  is  in  every 
case  less  than  22,  or  1.5  per  cent  of  all  the  subjects 
tested.  They  therefore  do  not  warrant  any  score,  ac- 
cording to  our  method  (see  Chapter  V,  The  Determin- 
ation of  the  Scores). 

The  rest  of  the  blocks  are  inserted  in  the  spaces  so 
seldom  as  not  to  warrant  special  consideration.  In 
looking  through  Tables  II  to  XLII  it  will  be  noted 
that  most  of  these  scattered  cases  tend  to  occur  in 
the  lower  ages. 

Changing  slightly  our  point  of  view,  we  may  now 
examine  Figures  2  to  10.  These  graphs  show  the 
percentage  of  responses  at  each  age  for  the  nine  spaces, 
and  the  curves  denote  the  blocks  that  were  most  com- 
monly inserted  into  these  spaces.  The  solid  line  in 
each  case  represents  the  block  that  was  originally 
designed  for  the  space.  For  example,  Figure  7  shows 
the  three  most  common  responses  to  the  Basket  space. 
The  solid  line  shows  that  in  this  space  the  correct  block, 
i.  e.,  the  Basket,  was  put  in  the  Basket  space  by  30  per 
cent  of  the  five-year-olds,  by  37  per  cent  of  the  six- 
year-olds,  and  so  on.  Further  that  the  Cherries  block 


THE   RESULTS 


41 


FIGURE  2 


42 


THE    PICTURE    COMPLETION    TEST 


FIGURE  3 


THE   KESULTS 


43 


±± 


fler, 


act 


FIGURE  4 


44 


THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 


FIGURE  5 


THE   RESULTS 


45 


FIGURE  6 


46  THE   PICTURE    COMPLETION  TEST 


FlGUEE  7 


THE   RESULTS 


47 


FIGURE  8 


48 


THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 


FIGURE  9 


THE   RESULTS 


49 


cvift 


til 


i 


FIGURE  10 


50  THE   PICTURE    COMPLETION   TEST 

(broken  line)  was  put  in  the  Basket  space  by  10  per 
cent  of  the  five-year-olds,  by  15  per  cent  of  the  six- 
year-olds,  by  12  per  cent  of  the  seven-year-olds,  and 
so  on.  And  further,  that  the  third  most  common 
response  that  was  made  to  this  space  was  the  insertion 
of  the  Bucket  block  (dot  and  dash  line),  which  occurred 
in  4.5  per  cent  of  the  six-year-olds,  5  per  cent  of  the 
seven-year-olds,  2.5  per  cent  of  the  eight-year-olds, 
and  so  on. 

Similarly  Figure  2  shows  the  three  blocks  most 
commonly  inserted  in  the  B.  Wind,  space,  namely  the 
B.  Wind.,  the  C.  Wind.,  and  a  blank  block.  Note 
that  blank  refers  to  a  block  which  has  no  picture  on 
it.  There  are  10  blank  blocks  as  can  be  seen  from 
the  picture  on  Figure  1. 

All  the  other  graphs  are  to  be  read  in  the  same  way. 
In  general,  the  correct  block  for  the  space  is  distinctly 
above  all  the  other  curves.  Indeed,  in  most  cases 
the  percentages  for  the  other  responses  are  so  low  as 
to  be  relatively  insignificant  (see  Figures  3,  6,  and  9  in 
particular).  Three  graphs  differ  decidedly  from  this 
general  tendency,  in  that  the  curve  for  the  correct 
block  falls  below  some  one  of  the  other  curves  at  some 
ages.  This  is  the  case  in  Figures  2,  5,  and  10.  It  is 
most  marked  in  Figure  2,  where  the  curve  for  the  C. 
Wind,  remains  above  the  B.  Wind,  curve  at  Ages  5 
to  10,  inclusive.  This  means  that  at  these  ages  it  is 
more  common  for  the  observer  to  insert  the  C.  Wind, 
rather  than  the  B.  Wind.  It  marks  this  space  out  as 
being  definitely  the  most  difficult,  but  it  does  not 
prove  that  the  C.  Wind,  is  really  the  more  logical 
block.  This  question  was  raised  after  the  test  had 
been  completed  by  asking  a  great  number  of  the  sub- 
jects who  made  this  error  to  state  which  block  was  the 


THE   RESULTS  51 

better,  the  C.  Wind,  or  the  B.  Wind.  Almost  invari- 
ably the  B.  Wind,  was  chosen.  The  ability  to  put 
in  the  right  block,  the  B.  Wind,  shows  an  almost 
steady  increase  from  six  to  fifteen  years.  Figure  5 
shows  that  at  Ages  5,  6,  and  7  the  Baseball  is  chosen 
more  often  than  the  Football.  Figure  10  shows  that 
at  Ages  5  and  6  the  Cage  is  chosen  more  often  than 
the  correct  block.  In  the  determination  of  the  scores 
later  on,  it  will  be  noted  that  the  B.  Wind,  hi  the  B. 
Wind,  space  is  the  hardest  move. 

The  interesting  feature  about  the  curves  for  the 
correct  blocks  is  that  all  show  a  distinct  tendency  to 
rise  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  ages.  The  actual 
performances  of  the  subjects  go  to  show  that  the 
blocks  as  originally  designed  are  best  adapted  to  the 
spaces  they  were  intended  to  fill.  It  is  added  evidence 
of  the  excellence  of  the  test.  We  must  keep  this  fact 
in  mind  when  we  raise  the  question  of  scoring,  for 
these  moves  should  obviously  receive  the  highest 
scores  in  any  method  of  scoring. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  DETERMINATION  OF  THE  SCORES 
Percentage  Distribution 

The  total  group  of  subjects  tested  was  made  the 
basis  for  the  determination  of  the  scores.  Table 
XLIII  shows  the  percentage  distribution  of  the  total 
number  of  1479  cases  used  for  the  determination  of 
the  scores.  The  vertical  column  gives  the  name  of 
the  block  and  the  horizontal  row  the  name  of  the 
space.  There  are  nine  spaces  in  the  horizontal  rows 
and  41  blocks  along  the  vertical  columns.  The  table 
is  to  be  read  as  follows:  the  B.  Wind,  space  (first 
horizontal  row)  was  filled  in  by  the  B.  Wind,  block 
by  39.9  per  cent  of  the  subjects  (upper  figure)  and  this 
move  was  given  a  score  of  100;  the  B.  Wind,  space 
(continuing  along  the  row)  was  filled  in  by  the  Dog 
block  by  0.3  per  cent  of  the  subjects  and  received  a 
score  of  0.2,  and  so  on.  Passing  to  the  next  row  we 
find  that  the  Dog  space  was  filled  in  by  the  Dog  block 
by  62.7  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  individuals 
and  was  given  a  score  of  63.7;  next  that  the  Cat  was 
put  in  the  Dog  space  by  2.4  per  cent,  of  the  subjects 
and  was  given  a  score  of  1.6,  and  so  forth. 

In  determining  these  scores,  an  examination  of  the 
nine  correct  moves  was  made  first.  This  shows  that 
the  B.  Wind,  in  the  B.  Wind,  was  the  hardest,  because 
the  fewest  subjects  were  able  to  do  it;  it  was  given  a 
score  of  100.  The  other  eight  correct  moves  were 
given  scores  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  percentage  of 
cases  recorded.  If  39.9  per  cent  are  able  to  put  the 
B.  Wind,  in  the  B.  Wind,  space  and  receive  a  score  of 
100,  then  62.7  per  cent  who  put  the  Dog  block  in  the 

52 


DETERMINATION   OF   SCORES 


53 


TABLE  XLIII. 

Distribution  of  Total  Number  Tested 
PERCENTAGES  AND  SCORES 


•d 
d 

f 

« 

i 

3 

Football 

§ 

W 

Basket 

3 

1 

8 

I 

fe 

B.  Wind.— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  
Dog— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  
Cat— 
Per  Cent... 
Score 

39.9 
100 

1.5 
1.0 

0.2 
0  2 

0.3 
0.2 

62.7 
63.7 

1.1 
0  8 

0.07 

2.4 
1.6 

49.1 

81  3 

0.14 
0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.07 

0.14 
0.07 

0.6 
0.4 

0.4 
0  3 

0.14 
0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.9 
0  6 

0.07 

0.1 
0.07 

0.3 
0  2 

0.2 
0.15 

0.7 
0.5 

3.5 
2  4 

0.14 
0.07 

0.9 
0.6 

2.2 
1  5 

Football— 
Per  Cent... 
Score 

0.2 
0  2 

0.9 
0  6 

0.7 
0  5 

47.7 
83  9 

0.7 

0  5 

1.0 
0  7 

0.07 

0.3 
0  2 

1.6 
1  0 

Hat— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  
Basket— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  

0.4 
0.4 

0.2 
0  2 

1.7 
1.2 

0.2 
0  2 

3.0 
2.0 

0.6 
0  4 

0.6 
0.4 

0.4 
0  4 

61.3 
65.2 

0.07 

0.4 
0.4 

72.6 
55  0 

0.3 
0.2 

1.8 
1.2 

0.8 
0.6 

1.6 

1.0 

0.5 
0.3 

Log  — 
Per  Cent... 
Score 

0.5 
0  5 

0.2 
0  2 

0.4 
0  4 

0.3 
0  2 

0.07 

0.3 
0  2 

76.2 
52  4 

0.6 
0  4 

0.3 
0  2 

Chicken  — 
Per  Cent... 
Score  
F.  Bird— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  

0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

1.2 
0.8 

0.1 
0.07 

3.5 
2.4 

0.4 
0.4 

0.07 
0.07 

0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

1.3 
0.9 

3.0 
2.0 

0.3 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

69.5 

57.5 

0.7 
0.5 

1.6 
1.0 

46.1 
86  6 

54 


THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION  TEST 


TABLE  XLIII— (Continued) 


13 

1 

D 

43 
• 
Q 

Q 

3 

0 

BQ 

n 

1 

A 

W 

1 

| 

pa 

CQ 

, 

! 

PQ 

B.  Wind.— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  
Dog— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  

47.1 
32.3 

0.4 
0.3 

3.1 
2.1 

0.5 
0.3 

0.2 
0.1 

0.5 
0.3 

0.5 
0.3 

3.4 
2.3 

1.8 
1  7 

0.2 
0.1 

2.1 
1  4 

0.07 

1.7 
1.2 

1.5 
1.0 

1.2 

0  7 

3.2 
2.2 

3.2 
?  ? 

Cat— 
Per  Cent... 
Score 

0.1 
0  07 

10.5 

7  2 

3.0 
2  0 

0.07 

6.2 

4  3 

0.5 
0  S 

2.0 
1  4 

1.2 

0  7 

1.4 
0  9 

Football— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  

0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

30.6 
21.0 

0.8 
0.5 

0.6 
0  4 

0.3 

0  ? 

0.6 
0.4 

1.1 

0  7 

0.9 
0  6 

Hat— 
Per  Cent... 
Score 

0.3 
0  2 

1.1 
0  8 

0.3 
0  2 

0.5 
0.3 

4.5 
3  1 

0.9 
0  6 

3.2 
?  ? 

0.7 
0.5 

1.0 

0  7 

1.4 
0  9 

Basket— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  

0.07 

0.7 
0.5 

0.3 
0.2 

0.2 
0.1 

1.0 
0.7 

1.4 
0  9 

0.4 
0  4 

0.2 
0.1 

0.5 

0  3 

1.2 

0  7 

Log  — 
Per  Cent... 
Score 

0.1 
0  07 

0.4 
0  3 

0.3 
0  2 

0.5 
0  3 

8.0 

s  s 

0.3 
0  ? 

0.3 
0.2 

0.3 
0  ? 

1.5 
1  0 

Chicken  — 
Per  Cent.. 

0  1 

1  7 

0  9 

0.2 

1.9 

1  9 

1  S 

2.2 

1  7 

0  9 

Score  

0  07 

1  2 

0.6 

0.1 

1.3 

1  3 

1  0 

1.5 

1  ? 

0  6 

F.  Bird— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  

0.8 
0.5 

0.2 
0.1 

0.3 
0.2 

0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.4 
0  3 

26.9 
18,4 

10.7 
7  ?. 

1.2 
0  8 

DETERMINATION   OF   SCORES 


55 


TABLE  XLIII— (Continued) 


I 

OQ 

1 

3 

1 

« 

1 

M 
% 

& 
D 

i 

Flowers 

£ 

Candle 

1 

B.  Wind.— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  

1.1 
0.8 

0.9 
0.6 

0.2 
0.1 

0.5 
0.3 

0.4 
0.3 

0.4 
0.4 

0.5 
0.3 

0.3 
0.2 

0.1 
0.07 

0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.2 
0.1 

0.1 
0.07 

0.7 
0.5 

0.4 
0.4 

0.3 
0.2 

0.6 
0.4 

0.1 

0.07 

0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.5 
0.3 

0.5 
0.3 

0.3 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.6 
0.4 

0.7 
0.5 

0.5 
0.3 

0.3 
0.3 

0.07 

0.1 
0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

0.7 
0.5 

5.5 
3.8 

0.3 
0.2 

0.4 
0.4 

0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.2 
0.1 

0.07 

0.2 
0.1 

0.3 
0.2 

1.8 

1.2 

0.1 
0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

0.4 
0.3 

0.2 
0.1 

1.1 
0.8 

0.4 
0.3 

0.1 
0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.5 
0.4 

0.3 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

0.07 

0.7 
0.5 

1.1 
0.8 

0.6 
0.4 

0.5 
0.4 

0.9 
0.6 

0.2 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

0.4 
0.3 

0.2 
0.1 

0.6 
0.4 

0.7 
0.4 

1.9 
1.3 

1.2 
0.8 

0.7 
0.5 

0.9 
0.6 

0.8 
0.6 

0.3 
0.2 

0.9 
0.6 

0.4 
0.3 

0.2 
0.2 

0.5 
0.4 

0.7 
0.4 

0.07 

0.3 

0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

0.07 

0.4 
0.3 

0.4 
0.2 

0.2 
0.2 

0.7 
0.4 

0.2 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

0.9 
0.6 

0.3 
0.2 

Dog—- 
Per Cent... 
Score  

Cat—- 
Per Cent... 
Score  
Football— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  
Hat— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  
Basket— 
Per  Cent... 
Score 

Log  — 
Per  Cent... 
Score  
Chicken  — 
PerCent... 
Score  

F.  Bird— 
PerCent... 
Score  

56 


THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 


TABLE  XLIII— (Continued) 


s 

a 

1 

5 

Cherries 

02 

Bucket 

© 

1 

.2 
H 

j 

| 

£ 

1 

B.  Wind.— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  

0.07 
0.07 

0.6 
0.4 

0.1 
0.07 

0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.6 
0.4 

0.2 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

2.1 
1.4 

0.7 
0.5 

0.4 
0.3 

0.7 
0.5 

0.3 
0.2 

0.6 
0.4 

0.2 
0.2 

0.7 
0.4 

0.1 
0.07 

3.0 
2.0 

0.1 
0.07 

10.0 

6.8 

0.1 
0.07 

2.6 
1.8 

4.0 

2.7 

0.3 
0.2 

1.9 

1.3 

1.9 
1.3 

0.1 
0.07 

0.6 
0.4 

1.3 
0.9 

2.9 
2.0 

0.3 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

0.5 
0.4 

0.5 
0.4 

0.3 
0.2 

0.6 

0.4 

2.4 
1.6 

0.1 
0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.4 
0.3 

3.5 
2.5 

0.3 
0.2 

0.2 
0.07 

0.1 
0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

1.1 
0.8 

0.5 
0.3 

1.2 
0.8 

1.5 
1.0 

0.6 
0.4 

0.1 
0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.07 

0.6 
0.4 

0.2 
0.2 

0.1 
0.07 

1.0 
0.7 

0.2 
0.2 

0.2 
0.2 

0.7 
0.4 

0.1 
0.07 

0.2 
0.1 

0.3 
0.2 

0.2 
0.2 

0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.2 
0.2 

0.3 
0.2 

0.1 
0.07 

0.07 

0.07 

0.3 
0.2 

0.1 
0.07 

0.1 
0.07 

0.5 
0.4 

0.1 
0.07 

0.1 
0.07 

0.6 
0.4 

0.5 
0.4 

0.2 
0.2 

0.07 

0.2 
0.2 

0.07 
0.07 

Dog— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  

Cat— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  
Football— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  
Hat— 
Per  Cent... 
Score 

Basket— 
Per  Cent... 
Score  
Log  — 
Per  Cent... 
Score  
Chicken  —  • 
Per  Cent... 
Score  

F.  Bird— 
Per  Cent... 
Score 

DETEKMINATION   OF   SCORES  57 

Dog  space  should  receive  a  pro  rata  score  of  64  (62.7: 
39.9  =  100:  64),  and  so  on  for  the  nine  correct  blocks. 
The  easiest  of  these  nine  moves  is  the  Log  in  the  Log 
space,  since  the  largest  proportion  of  successes,  76.2 
per  cent,  is  with  this  move. 

Now  in  regard  to  the  other  moves  made,  which  we 
may  call  errors,  it  is  obvious  that  the  most  pardonable 
error  is  the  one  made  by  the  greatest  number  of  people. 
We  might  term  such  an  error  the  "most  logical" 
error,  meaning  by  "logical"  that  it  occurs  most 
frequently.  Therefore  all  the  other  moves  merit 
scores  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  people  making 
the  move.  The  greater  the  frequency  of  the  move, 
the  higher  the  score.  We  cannot,  however,  allow  any 
of  these  so-called  errors  to  exceed  the  score  of  any  of 
the  correct  moves,  hence  all  of  them  must  fall  below 
a  score  of  52,  the  score  for  the  easiest  correct  move. 
The  relative  merit  of  these  errors  can  be  determined, 
then,  by  using  52  as  a  starting  point.  The  greater 
the  frequency  of  the  move  the  larger  the  score.  If  76.2 
per  cent  (Log  in  Log)  is  equal  to  a  score  of  52,  then 
by  direct  proportion,  47.1  per  cent  (C.  Wind,  in  B. 
Wind.)  is  equal  to  a  score  of  32.  These  scores  are 
all  given  in  Table  XLIII.  The  second  figure,  the  figure 
below  the  percentage,  denotes  the  score  hi  each  case. 

For  practical  purposes  the  scores  recorded  in  the 
table  were  needlessly  fine,  so  the  decimals  were  dropped 
and  the  nearest  integer  was  taken.  Neglecting  all 
scores  below  1.0,  we  arrive  at  the  scores  given  in  Table 
XLIV. 

Sixty-one  moves  have  been  found  to  merit  some 
score  by  this  procedure.  To  make  the  lowest  score  1 
is,  of  course,  purely  an  arbitrary  procedure.  It  would 
be  perfectly  feasible  to  go  beyond  this  and  include 


58 


THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 


TABLE  XLIV. 
/Scores 


B.  WIND. 
B  Wind 

.100 

CAT 

Cat  . 

81 

HAT 
Hat 

fifj 

C  Wind  

.  32 

Baby. 

4 

Baby 

Q 

Blank           

.     2 

Chicken  .   ... 

2 

Books 

1 

Cage          

.     1 

Cup  

1 

Cat 

2 

D.  Cat  

7 

Chicken 

1 

DOG 

Fruit  

1 

Dog.. 

1 

(\A 

M.  Bottle.  

4 

F.  Bird  

1 

-L>Og  

TJ    -L 

F.  Bird  

2 

Mouse  

2 

.Baby  
Bi  i 

S.  Cat  

2 

Purse  

3 

B  Wind 

.         1 

S.  Bird  

1 

Stool 

1 

CHICKEN 

Cat 

2 

D  Cat      

.     2 

Chicken 

58 

Hatchet  

.     1 

FOOTBALL 

Babv 

1 

Mouse  

.     1 

Football  

84 

Cat  

9 

S.  Bird  

.     1 

Baseball  

?1 

Cherries  

2 

Stool  

.     1 

Cherries  

2 

Cage  

1 

F.  Bird  

1 

D.  Cat  

1 

LOG 

Pumpkin.  . 

1 

F.  Bird  

1 

Log 

52 

Hatchet  

1 

Blank      

.     1 

F.   BIRD 

Mouse  

1 

. 

S.  Bird 

*4 

Hatchet  

6 

F.  Bird  

87 

Stool  

.     2 

Basket  

2 

Cage  

7 

BASKET 

Cherries  

3 

S.  Bird  

18 

Basket  

.  55 

Bucket 

2 

Cherries 

7 

DETERMINATION   OF   SCORES  59 

more  cases  or  to  stop  before  this  and  include  fewer 
cases.  A  score  of  1  denotes  that  from  about  1.5  to 
2.2  per  cent  made  this  move.  It  seemed,  from  exam- 
ination of  the  moves  which  have  been  credited,  that 
almost  all  of  them  had  some  degree  of  justification,  at 
least  such  as  would  warrant  a  small  amount  of  credit. 
If  we  were  to  discard  all  scores  below  2,  many  moves 
that  seem  logical  would  have  no  score  attached  to  them, 
such  for  example  as  the  Pumpkin  in  the  Football  space, 
the  Baby,  the  D.  Cat,  the  F.  Bird,  the  Hatchet,  or 
the  Mouse  in  the  Chicken  space  and  so  on.  Most  of 
these  seem  to  warrant  at  least  the  small  score  of  1. 
The  most  illogical  ones  that  receive  a  score  of  1  by 
this  method  seem  to  be  the  Hatchet  and  the  Stool  in 
the  Dog  space,  and  the  Fruit  and  the  Stool  in  the  Cat 
space.  The  B.  Wind,  in  the  Dog  space  seems  at  first 
sight  absurd,  but  a  questioning  of  many  children  who 
made  this  move  elicited  the  information  that  the  B. 
Wind,  was  taken  for  a  large  spider  or  other  monster 
from  which  the  boy  was  fleeing.  In  view  of  such 
explanations  by  children,  it  seemed  to  be  wisest  to 
keep  to  the  scores  determined  objectively  by  fre- 
quency of  move.  Table  XLIV,  which  gives  the  scores, 
is  therefore  the  criterion  we  have  used  in  scoring  the 
results.  It  is  to  be  read  as  follows :  The  B.  Wind,  block 
put  into  the  B.  Wind,  space  is  scored  100;  the  C.  Wind, 
block  hi  the  B.  Wind,  space  is  scored  32,  and  so  on.  No 
score  is  allowed  for  any  move  not  found  in  this  table. 

Correlations 

The  method  of  determining  the  scores  adopted  and 
described  above  is  based  on  the  pooled  results  of  all 
ages.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  performances 
of  all  the  tested  individuals  were  combined  and  the 


60  THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 

frequency  of  the  position  of  any  block  in  any  of  the 
squares  was  noted.  Upon  these  frequencies  the  scores 
were  allotted.  That  is  to  say,  the  method  of  scoring 
is  based  entirely  upon  what  is  actually  done  by  the 
subjects.  The  performance  of  the  subject  is  a  measure 
of  the  ease  or  difficulty  of  any  position,  and  this  in  turn 
determines  the  value  allotted  to  that  particular  move. 

Now,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  number  of  tested 
individuals  is  not  constant  at  each  age,  the  objection 
may  be  raised  that  any  age  possessing  a  proportion- 
ately larger  number  of  subjects  might  influence  unduly 
the  scoring  values.  This  is  the  first  point  that  calls  for  a 
correlation  between  the  relative  ease  or  difficulty  of  each 
move  at  each  age  and  the  same  move  for  the  total  group. 

Another  and  more  important  question  also  demands 
this  kind  of  a  correlation.  If  the  type  of  performance, 
i.  e.,  the  relative  ease  or  difficulty  of  the  various  moves, 
is  radically  and  characteristically  different  at  any  one 
age  or  group  of  ages  from  the  type  of  performance 
common  to  the  other  ages,  then  the  method  of  scoring 
as  determined  by  the  total  of  all  tested  may  be  unfair 
to  that  age  or  group  of  ages,  since  the  method  of  scor- 
ing is  supposed  to  be  determined  by  what  the  subjects 
actually  do.  If,  for  example,  the  relative  ease  and 
difficulty  of  the  various  moves  for  Ages  6  and  7  were 
to  vary  from  the  relative  ease  and  difficulty  for  the 
other  ages, 'then  the  scoring  values  as  determined  by 
the  total  tested  would  be  unfair  to  Ages  6  and  7, 
meaning  by  unfair  that  they  would  not  be  based  upon 
what  six-  and  seven-year-olds  actually  find  to  be  easy 
or  difficult,  but  upon  what  a  group  of  individuals,  of 
which  the  six-  and  seven-year-olds  form  a  small  num- 
ber, find  to  be  easy  or  difficult.  In  other  words,  if 
any  age  or  age-group  were  to  deviate  in  this  respect 


DETERMINATION   OF   SCORES  61 

from  the  total  group,  that  age-group  would  be  scored 
by  values  obtained  from  other  sources.  Such  a  method 
of  scoring  would  be  perfectly  legitimate  and  defensible. 
In  fact,  the  best  possible  move  for  the  nine  correct 
squares  is  determined  by  such  a  method.  And  in 
regard  to  the  other  moves,  excluding  the  nine  best 
possible  ones,  it  would  have  been  entirely  feasible  to 
have  decided  upon  a  method  of  scoring  based  upon  the 
performances  of  a  select  group  of  adults.  This  method 
would  imply  that  such  a  group  of  adults  makes  moves 
that  are  the  most  logical  or  the  least  illogical.  This 
method  was  not  adopted  since  it  was  thought  that 
the  child's  performance  might  differ  so  radically  from 
the  adult's  as  to  make  a  method  of  scoring  derived 
from  adults'  performances  artificial  when  applied  to 
children.  And  further,  a  practical  consideration  enters 
in,  namely  that  a  select  gioup  of  adults  would  make  so 
few  illogical  moves  as  to  limit  the  range  of  scores  very 
materially.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  total  number  of 
moves,  other  than  the  nine  correct  ones,  chosen  by  the 
adults  amounts  to  54.  Since  there  are  369  possible 
moves  in  addition  to  the  nine  correct  ones,  54  is  a 
relatively  small  number. 

To  arrive  at  these  correlations,  the  rank  according 
to  difficulty  of  the  61  moves  which  have  been  allowed 
a  scoring  value  was  taken.  These  61  moves  are  the 
most  frequent,  as  determined  by  the  total  number  of 
individuals  tested.  It  was  not  deemed  feasible  to 
work  out  correlations  for  all  the  possible  369  moves; 
most  of  them  are  seldom  met  with.  These  61  most 
common  moves  will  give  us  a  sufficient  indication  of 
the  correlation  between  the  total  group  and  the  differ- 
ent age-groups.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  this 
method  of  ranking  excludes  in  certain  age-groups 


62  THE   PICTUKE   COMPLETION   TEST 

some  moves  which  do  not  appear  in  the  total  group 
and  which  would  have  ranked  higher  than  a  few  of 
the  less  frequently  chosen  moves.  To  this  slight 
extent,  therefore,  'our  table  of  ranks  is  incomplete. 
Table  XLV  shows  the  ranking  in  order  of  frequency 
for  the  61  moves,  for  the  total  group  tested,  and  then 
for  each  group  separately.  From  this  table  Figures 
11,  12,  and  13  have  been  constructed.  These  three 
graphs  show  the  ranking  at  each  age  of  the  twelve 
most  frequent  moves  as  determined  by  the  total 
group.  Some  idea  of  the  similarity  in  ranking  for  the 
different  age  groups  can  be  obtained  from  them. 
Figure  11  shows  that  the  Log  in  the  Log  space  was  the 
move  that  received  first  rank  at  all  ages  except  six  and 
seven.  The  other  three  moves,  namely  the  Dog — 
Dog,  the  Football— Football,  and  the  B.  Wind.— B. 
Wind,  do  not  display  such  a  constant  rank,  but  the 
range  of  variability  is  small  when  we  consider  that 
there  are  61  possible  ranks.  The  four  moves  given 
in  Figure  12  show  very  little  fluctuation  in  rank;  the 
Chicken— Chicken,  the  F.  Bird— F.  Bird,  the  Cat- 
Cat,  and  the  S.  Bird — F.  Bird  moves  vary  only  from 
one  to  three  places.  In  Figure  13  the  same  relatively 
constant  tendency  is  observed  in  the  ranks  for  the 
Basket — Basket  and  Hat — Hat  moves,  but  when  we 
come  to  the  two  "logical"  errors,  the  C.  Wind,  in  the 
B.  Wind,  space  and  the  Baseball  in  the  Football  space, 
there  appears  a  somewhat  greater  range  of  ranks, 
although  this  is  comparatively  slight  if  we  consider 
the  total  length  of  the  series.  The  change  in  rank  of 
these  two  moves  is  somewhat  abrupt  as  we  proceed 
from  the  lower  to  the  higher  ages. 

The  correlations  determined  from  the  table  of  ranks 
(Table  XLV)  are,  first,  between  each  age-group  and 


DETERMINATION   OF   SCORES 


63 


TABLE  XLV. 

Ranks  of  Positions 

Position 

Age  Groups 

Total 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Adult 

Log-Log  
Basket-Basket  
Chicken-Chicken.  . 
Dog-Dog 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22.5 
22.5 
24 
26 
26 
26 
28 
29.5 
29.5 
31.5 
31.5 
33 
34 
35 
36.5 
36.5 
38 
39.5 
39.5 
41 
44 
44 
44 

4 

2 
3 
7 
9.5 
6 
14.5 
1 
9.5 
14.5 
8 
13 
5 
16.5 
12 
11 
46.5 
16.5 
39 
39 
23 
39 
23 
23 
18.5 
31.5 
57 
39 
18.5 
31.5 
39 
52 
31.5 
46.5 
31.5 
31.5 
23 
27.5 
23 
27.5 
57 
39 
57 
46.5 

4 

2.5 
2.5 
7 
5 
10 
12 
1 
8 
10 
6 
10 
14 
16.5 
15 
13 
26.5 
16.5 
38 
22 
30.5 
26.5 
33 
38 
18.5 
38 
33 
38 
38 
33 
26.5 
57.5 
18.5 
45.5 
45.5 
30.5 
52.5 
57.5 
45.5 
26.5 
60 
26.5 
52.5 
22 

1 

2 

4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
3 
9 
11 
10 
12 
13 
15 
14 
19 
16 
27 
17 
27 
46.5 
35 
27 
25 
21 
41.5 
35 
27 
27 
35 
35 
41.5 
19 
19 
46.5 
46.5 
35 
52.5 
56.5 
52.5 
46.5 
46.5 
35 
46.5 

1 

2 
3 
5 
4 
8 
6 
7 
9 
10 
12 
11 
14 
14 
14 
16.5 
18.5 
22.5 
18.5 
20.5 
25.5 
38 
31 
20.5 
28 
16.5 
51.5 
22.5 
45.5 
38 
45.5 
51.5 
31 
25.5 
38 
38 
31 
25.5 
38 
38 
31 
51.5 
56.5 
45.5 

1 

2 
3 
4 
5 
7 
6 
8 
9 
10 
12 
11 
16 
13 
14 
17 
15 
47.5 
18 
28 
24 
40.5 
20 
33 
55.5 
55.5 
24 
47.5 
20 
24 
40.5 
24 
33 
28 
47.5 
40.5 
33 
33 
47.5 
55.5 
20 
28 
24 
55.5 

1 
3 

2 
4 
5 
6 
8 
10 
7 
9 
12 
11 
28 
13 
15.5 
18 
14 
28 
18 
36 
18 
21.5 
28 
20 
36 
23.5 
28 
21.5 
53.5 
23.5 
28 
15.5 
53.5 
36 
44.5 
36 
53.5 
36 
36 
44.5 
60 
60 
28 
53.5 

1 

4 
3 
2 
5 
6 
8.5 
10 
8.5 
7 
11 
12 
20 
13.5 
13.5 
23 
15 
17 
20 
57 
32 
40 
32 
32 
57 
26.5 
17 
48.5 
40 
17 
20 
23 
32 
40 
40 
48.5 
26.5 
57 
40 
48.5 
23 
57 
48.5 
32 

1 
2 
3 
4.5 
4.5 
8 
6 
10 
7 
9 
11.5 
11.5 
13.5 
13.5 
20 
18.5 
15.5 
15.5 
48.5 
36.5 
28.5 
17 
18.5 
48.5 
28.5 
48.5 
28.5 
24 
36.5 
28.5 
24 
21.5 
36.5 
36.5 
21.5 
28.5 
36.5 
36.5 
36.5 
28.5 
48.5 
36.5 
48.5 
58.5 

1 
3 
4 
5 
2 
7 
8 
10 
6 
9 
11 
12 
26.5 
14 
13 
21 
21 
16.5 
21 
16.5 
32 
21 
32 
43.5 
43.5 
43.5 
56.5 
15 
43.5 
21 
32 
32 
56.5 
43.5 
32 
43.5 
56.5 
26.5 
43.5 
43.5 
21 
43.5 
43.5 
56.5 

1 

4 
2.5 
2.5 
5 
7.5 
6 
10 
9 
7.5 
12 
11 
22 
13 
14.5 
49 
16.5 
49 
32 
22 
49 
22 
32 
49 
49 
22 
16.5 
49 
22 
22 
49 
14.5 
49 
49 
32 
32 
49 
22 
32 
49 
49 
49 
32 
49 

1 
3.5 
2 
3.5 
5 
7 
8 
10 
6 
9 
11 
12 
18.5 
13 
14 
18.5 
25.5 
15 
18.5 
52 
25.5 
36 
25.5 
25.5 
52 
18.5 
25.5 
36 
36 
18.5 
36 
52 
52 
52 
18.5 
25.5 
52 
52 
36 
52 
36 
25.5 
36 
36 

Hat-Hat 

Cat-Cat 

Football-Football 
C.  Wind.-B.  Wind. 
F.  Bird-F.  Bird..  . 
B.  Wind.-B.  Wind. 
Baseball-Football. 
S.  Bird-F.  Bird... 
Cage-F.  Bird  
D.  Cat-Cat  

Cherries-Basket.  .  . 
Hatchet-Log  

Baby-Cat  

M.  Bottle-Cat  
Baby-Hat  

Cherries-F.  Bird.. 
Purse-Hat 

Chicken-Cat 

Cat-Chicken 

Baby—  Dog 

Blank-B.Wind.... 
Blank-Dog  

Mouse-Hat  

D.  Cat-Dog  

Basketr-F.  Bird.  .  .  . 
Cherries-Football  . 
Cat-Hat  

S.  Cat-Hat  

Stool-Log 

Cherries-Chicken  . 
Cat-Dog 

Bucket-Basket.... 
S.  Bird-Chicken.. 
F.  Bird-Cat 

Fruit-Cat  
Mouse-Dog  
S.  Bird-Cat  

Baby-Chicken.  .  .  . 
Hatchet-Chicken  . 
Pumpkin-Football 

64 


THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 
TABLE  XLV— (Continued) 


Position 

Age  Groups 

Total 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Adult 

Stool-Cat    .   . 

44 
44 
48 
48 
48 
51.5 
51.5 
51.5 
51.5 
54 
56 
56 
56 
59 
59 
59 
61 

46.5 
39 
39 
52 
52 
23 
52 
57 
31.5 
52 
46.5 
39 
57 
60.5 
60.5 
23 
46.5 

26.5 
22 
45.5 

52.5 
45.5 
38 
38 
45.5 
57.5 
45.5 
52.5 
45.5 
61 
57.5 
52.5 
20 
52.5 

52.5 
56.5 
27 
52.5 
27 
35 
35 
52.5 
52.5 
60.5 
35 
60.5 
58.5 
41.5 
22.5 
58.5 
41.5 

45.5 
56.5 
45.5 
51.5 
38 
51.5 
60 
31 
45.5 
25.5 
60 
56.5 
38 
38 
51.5 
60 
56.5 

55.5 
33 
47.5 
33 
61 
47.5 
40.5 
55.5 
33 
40.5 
55.5 
40.5 
40.5 
55.5 
40.5 
55.5 
55.5 

44.5 
36 
53.5 
53.5 
53.5 
53.5 
28 
44.5 
36 
44.5 
44.5 
36 
44.5 
53.5 
44.5 
60 
53.5 

40 
57 
48.5 
40 
40 
48.5 
57 
26.5 
32 
48.5 
26.5 
48.5 
32 
40 
57 
57 
57 

36.5 
48.5 
48.5 
58.5 
48.5 
58.5 
58.5 
48.5 
58.5 
36.5 
48.5 
48.5 
24 
48.5 
58.5 
48.5 
48.5 

43.5 
56.5 
43.5 
43.5 
26.5 
56.5 
56.5 
32 
56.5 
56.5 
43.5 
43.5 
21 
26.5 
32 
43.5 
56.5 

22 
32 
49 
49 
49 
49 
32 
32 
49 
49 
49 
32 
49 
32 
49 
49 
49 

52 
52 
25.5 
52 
36 
52 
36 
52 
52 
52 
36 
36 
52 
52 
36 
52 
52 

Stool-Dog  
Chicken-Hat  

Cup-Cat  

Hatchet-Dog  
Cage-Chicken  

Dog-Hat 

D.  Cat-Chicken.  .  . 
S.  Bird-Dog  .    ... 

F.  Bird-Hat  

Cage-B.  Wind  

F.  Bird-Football.  . 
F.  Bird-Chicken.. 
Blank—  Log 

Mouse-Chicken  .  .  . 
B.  Wind-Dog  
Books-Hat  

the  total  group.  They  answer  the  question  as  to  the 
relative  difficulty  of  the  moves  for  each  age-group  as 
compared  with  the  total  group.  These  correlations, 
as  computed  by  the  Spearman  Foot-Rule  method,  are 
given  herewith: 


AGE 

6 

7 

8 

9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
Ad. 


Average 


.825 


DETERMINATION   OF   SCORES 


65 


tt: 


FIGURE  11 


66 


THE   PICTURE    COMPLETION   TEST 


FIGURE  12 


DETERMINATION  OF  SCORES 


67 


1C 


FIGURE  13 


68  THE  PICTURE  COMPLETION  TEST 

The  P.  E.  varies  from  .03  to  .04.  These  correlations 
are  high  and  range  only  from  .74  to  .90.  These  high 
coefficients  and  their  uniformity  at  every  age  justify 
the  use  for  subjects  of  any  age  of  the  scoring  values 
determined  by  the  total  group.  They  show  that,  on 
the  whole,  the  relative  ease  or  difficulty  of  the  moves 
is  pretty  much  the  same  for  any  age-group. 

In  addition  to  these  correlations,  we  have  computed 
by  the  same  method  others  between  each  age  and 
every  other  age  for  the  ranking  of  these  61  moves. 
These  correlations  are  shown  in  Table  XLVI.  It  will 


Age 
6 

6 

7 

.80 

.71 
.67 
.61 
.69 
.61 
.76 
.61 
.62 

8 

.66 
.71 

'.78 
.73 
.71 
.69 
.66 
.69 
59 

TABLE  XLVI 

Correlations 
9         10        11 

.72     .62     .62 
.67     .61     .69 
.78     .73     .71 
.72     .77 
.72              .80 
.77     .80 
.79     .77     .73 
.77     .67     .80 
.82     .67     .66 
.66     .72     .82 

12 

.55 
.61 
.69 
.79 
.77 
.73 

.74 

.77 
6Q 

13 

.73 
.76 
.66 

.77 
.67 
.80 
.74 

.79 
71 

14        15      Ad. 

.55     .57     .67 
.61     .62     .72 
.69     .59     .79 
.82     .66     .72 
.67     .72     .74 
.76     .82     .81 
.77     .69     .78 
.79     .71     .72 
.72     .75 
.72                  74 

7 

80 

8 

66 

9 

72 

10  

62 

11  

.  .     62 

12  

.  .    .56 

13 

73 

14 

55 

15.. 

.57 

be  seen  that  for  the  61  moves  under  consideration 
there  is  at  all  ages  a  high  correlation.  The  coefficients 
fluctuate  between  .55  and  .82.  This  means  that  for 
the  61  moves  under  consideration  the  relative  difficulty 
at  all  ages  is  much  the  same.  In  other  words  no  age 
or  group  of  ages  is  strikingly  different  from  the  others, 
and  therefore  we  may  conclude  that  no  injustice  is 
being  done  to  any  particular  age  by  our  method  of 
scoring.  Before  computing  these  coefficients  it  was 
thought  that  there  might  be  an  increasing  difference 
between  the  ages  as  we  proceed  from  the  lower  to  the 


DETERMINATION   OF   SCORES  69 

higher  ages.  For  example,  Age  6  might  be  thought  to 
correlate  most  highly  with  Age  7,  less  with  Age  8,  and 
so  on  up  to  the  adults,  with  which  it  might  be  expected 
to  correlate  least.  An  inspection  of  the  table  shows 
that  this  tendency  is  present,  but  only  to  a  very  slight 
degree.  We  cannot  find  any  very  uniform  decrease. 
Looking  at  the  first  line  of  the  table,  we  note  that  Age 
6  correlates  most  highly  with  Age  7,  then  with  ages 
13,  9,  adult,  8,  10,  11,  15,  12,  and  14,  in  the  order 
named.  An  inspection  of  the  other  ages,  taking  care 
to  begin  with  the  ages  closest  to  the  age  under  con- 
sideration, shows  much  the  same  results.  On  the 
whole,  then,  the  correlations  seem  to  show  that  no 
particular  injustice  is  done  to  any  age  by  the  method 
of  scoring  adopted. 


CHAPTER  VI 

NORMS 

By  the  foregoing  method  the  1520  cases  were 
scored,  and  a  table  of  distribution  for  all  the  cases  by 
age  was  made.  This  table  is  too  extended  to  give 
here;  only  a  summary  can  be  shown.  Table  XLVII 
shows  the  actual  number  of  cases  distributed  by  age 
and  by  score  in  units  of  fifty  points.  A  perfect  per- 
formance receives  a  score  of  646.  Table  XLVTII 
shows  the  same  facts  as  Table  XLVII,  except  that 
percentages  are  used  in  place  of  numbers,  thus  making 
possible  a  direct  comparison  from  age  to  age  absolute. 
Without  going  into  detail,  we  see  that  the  larger  per- 
centages in  the  table  tend  to  run  diagonally  from  the 
upper  left-hand  corner  down  to  the  lower  right-hand 
corner.  At  no  age-group  does  the  largest  percentage 
occur  in  the  600  to  646  score.  The  largest  single  per- 
centage of  adults  and  fifteen-year-olds  lies  hi  scores 
between  551  and  600.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
even  adults  do  not  find  this  test  easy  to  complete 
perfectly.  A  percentage  of  3.3  adults  falls  below  a 
score  of  251.  The  greatest  number  at  any  age-group 
receiving  a  very  high  score,  above  600,  is  found  in  the 
fifteen-year-old  group.  From  this  group  down,  there 
is,  for  this  very  high  score,  a  steady  decrease  in  per- 
centage to  zero  at  Age  6.  Similarly,  with  the  very 
low  scores  we  find  the  largest  percentages  at  the  lower 
ages  and  a  more  or  less  steady  diminution  in  percent- 
age as  we  proceed  to  the  higher  age-groups. 

Percentiles 

From  the  extended  table  of  distribution  not  included 
here,  percentile  scores  for  every  ten  per  cent  were  cal- 

70 


NORMS 


71 


Score 
0-  50.. 

5 

8 

6 
25 

TABLE  XLVII. 

Distribution  of  Scores 
NUMBERS 

7          8          9         10       11 
11          6                     1 

12 
1 

13 
1 

14 

15  Ad. 

51-100.  .  . 

3 

35 

17 

4 

3 

2 

101-150.  .  . 

2 

12 

16 

8 

1 

2 

2 

1 

1 

2 

151-200.  .  . 

2 

25 

21 

11 

1 

2 

2 

2 

3 

1 

2 

201-250... 

2 

18 

20 

13 

12 

6 

6 

1 

3 

1 

1 

251-300.  .  . 

1 

12 

13 

20 

14 

11 

7 

6 

6 

2 

1 

301-350.  .  . 

7 

15 

17 

20 

14 

8 

11 

5 

2 

3 

4 

351-400... 

2 

8 

15 

25 

22 

19 

20 

22 

10 

12 

5 

5 

401-450... 

3 

3 

23 

32 

26 

29 

21 

20 

16 

7 

10 

451-500... 

4 

7 

8 

15 

11 

21 

14 

17 

8 

2 

11 

501-550... 

1 

4 

11 

13 

31 

24 

26 

39 

32 

8 

21 

551-600... 

7 

4 

11 

17 

25 

32 

27 

22 

15 

29 

601-646... 

1 

2 

6 

8 

11 

13 

19 

12 

9 

9 

Total...  20    150    150    152    150    150    155    150    150    109    52    92 


TABLE  XLVIII. 

Distribution  of  Scores 
PERCENTAGES 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ll 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

0-  50 

40.0 

16.6 

7.3 

4.0 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

51-100 

15.0 

23.3 

11.3 

2.6 

2.0 

1.3 

101-150 

10.0 

8.0 

10.7 

5.3 

0.7 

1.3 

1.3 

0.7 

0.9 

3.8 

151-200 

10.0 

16.6 

14.0 

7.2 

0.7 

1.3 

1.3 

1.3 

2.0 

0.9 

2.2 

201-250 

10.0 

12.0 

13.3 

8.5 

8.0 

4.0 

3.9 

0.7 

2.0 

0.9 

1.1 

251-300 

5.0 

8.0 

8.7 

13.1 

9.3 

7.3 

4.5 

4.0 

4.0 

1.8 

1.9 

301-350 

4.7 

10.0 

11.2 

13.3 

9.3 

5.2 

7.3 

3.3 

1.8 

5.8 

4.3 

351^00 

10.0 

5.6 

10.0 

16.4 

14.7 

12.7 

12.9 

14.7 

6.6 

11.0 

9.6 

5.4 

401^50 

2.0 

2.0 

15.1 

21.4 

17.3 

18.7 

14.0 

13.3 

14.7 

13.5 

10.9 

451-500 

2.6 

4.7 

5.3 

10.0 

7.3 

13.5 

9.3 

11.3 

7.3 

3.8 

12.0 

501-550 

0.7 

2.6 

7.2 

8.7 

20.7 

15.5 

17.3 

26.0 

29.4 

15.4 

22.8 

551-600 

4.7 

2.6 

7.3 

11.3 

16.1 

21.4 

18.0 

20.2 

28.9 

31.3 

601-646 

0.7 

1.3 

4.0 

5.6 

7.1 

8.7 

12.7 

11.0 

17.3 

9.8 

Total 

100.0 

100.1 

100.0 

99.8 

100.1 

100.1 

100.0 

100.1 

99.9 

99.9 

100.0 

99.8 

72 


THE   PICTURE    COMPLETION   TEST 


culated  for  each  age-group.  These  are  shown  in 
Table  XLIX.1  The  fifty  percentile  or  median  gives 
the  age-norm  for  the  test.  The  median  scores  for 
children  show  a  steady  increase  from  age  to  age,  and 
would  seem  to  denote  sufficient  difference  from  age  to 
age  to  make  this  an  excellent  test  for  diagnostic  pur- 
poses. The  drop  of  ten  points  in  the  median  of  the 
adults  as  compared  with  the  fifteen-year-olds  raises 
the  question  whether  the  test  is  adapted  to  adult 

TABLE  XLIX. 

Percentile  Distribution 


Percentiles 

5 

6 

» 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Highest  
90 

394 
259 
207 
169 
126 
89 
49 
28 
5 
2 
0 

20 

207 
89 
5 
101 

525 
354 
260 
219 
185 
153 
99 
76 
62 
14 
0 

150 

245 
153 
71.5 
87 

646 
463 
364 
318 
263 
239 
189 
153 
107 
60 
0 

150 

348 
239 
131 
108 

646 
507 
446 
422.5 
381 
328 
296 
261 
201.5 
129 
3 

152 

439 
328 
235 
102 

646 
577 
499 
450 
440 
407 
372 
325 
297 
240 
62 

150 

477 
407 
310 
83 

646 
578 
522 
509 
478 
435 
411 
367 
313 
251 
35 

150 

515 

435 
339 
88 

646 

583 
578 
519 
501 
455.5 
443 
411 
369 
296 
122 

155 

534 

455.5 
380 
77 

646 
583 
578 
547 
509 
493 
445 
407 
369 
313 
36 

150 

570 
493 
382 
94 

646 
646 
581 
566 
515 
505 
494 
446 
417 
310 
47 

150 

578 
505 
436 
71 

646 
646 
578 
570 
521.5 
515 
501 
444 
415 
366 
106 

109 

578 
515 
437 
70 

646 
646 
583.5 
577.5 
567 
525 
501 
444 
380 
329 
144 

52 

583 
525 
435 
74 

646 
646 
583 
578 
569 
515 
509 
469 
441 
360 
162 

132 

583 
515 
453 
65 

80 

70 

60 

50   

40  

30  

20 

10 

Lowest  
Number  .... 

75  %ile  
Median  

25  %ile  

Quartile  .... 

intelligence.  As  noted  in  another  chapter,  Healy 
reports  a  poor  performance  with  adults.  In  explana- 
tion: it  may  be  that  a  far  greater  number  of  possibili- 
ties occur  to  them  than  occur  to  children,  or  it  may  be, 
that  they  do  not  try  as  hard  as  the  children  to  do  their 


1  The  quartile  on  this  and  other  tables  is  the  semi-interquartile  range. 
We  have  followed  Thorndike  in  calling  it  the  quartile  for  purposes  of 
brevity. 


NORMS  73 

best,  although  this  was  not  obvious  from  their  behavior. 
Or  it  may  simply  be  that  our  group  of  fifteen-year-olds 
did  actually  possess  slightly  more  intelligence  than  our 
group  of  adults,  if  this  test  is  a  good  test  of  intelligence. 
The  other  percentiles  show  an  almost  steady  in- 
crease from  age  to  age,  although  this  increase  is  not  as 
uniform  as  the  increase  of  the  medians.  The  curves 
of  the  percentiles  for  each  age  are  shown  in  Figure  14. 
From  this  graph  we  note  that  the  30  percentile,  the 
40  percentile,  the  60  percentile,  the  70  percentile,  the 
80  percentile  and  the  100  percentile  as  well  as  the 
50  percentile  (median)  show  no  decided  breaks  from 
age  to  age,  whereas  the  curves  for  the  lowest  score, 
the  10  percentile,  and  the  20  percentile  do  show  very- 
decided  breaks  at  certain  ages.  For  example,  the  10 
percentile  of  the  thirteen-year-olds  drops  slightly 
below  that  of  the  twelve-year-olds;  similarly,  the  fifteen- 
year-olds  at  this  percentile  drop  37  points  below  the 
fourteen-year-olds.  In  the  same  way,  the  20  per- 
centile shows  a  distinct  drop  at  fifteen  years.  It  is  to 
be  noted  that  this  lack  of  a  uniform  increase  in  the 
percentiles  is  characteristic  of  the  upper  ages.  It  is 
most  marked  at  Age  15  where  there  was  the  fewest 
number  of  cases.  None  of  the  breaks  occur  below  the 
age  of  eleven.  It  is  to  be  noted  hi  reference  to  the 
100-percentile  curve  (i.  e.,  the  best  score  at  each  age) 
that  this  reaches  the  maximal  score  at  Age  7  and  re- 
mains at  this  point  for  all  successive  age-groups. 
This  means  that  at  Age  7  and  above  there  is  always 
some  individual  who  can  complete  the  test  perfectly. 
The  curve  showing  the  lowest  score  at  each  age  is 
decidedly  irregular,  and  no  individual  in  any  age-group 
above  seven  makes  a  zero  score  as  in  Ages  5,  6,  and  7. 
The  curve  attains  its  highest  point  in  the  adult  group. 


THE    PICTURE    COMPLETION   TEST 


FIGURE  14 


NORMS  75 

The  greatest  irregularity  occurs  at  Age  11,  where  the 
lowest  score  is  122  points.  The  distance  between  the 
curves  on  this  graph  is  interesting:  in  general,  the 
curves  of  the  higher  and  lower  percentiles  are  farther 
apart  than  those  representing  the  middle  group  of 
percentiles.  This  is  to  be  expected  in  a  normal  dis- 
tribution, and  indicates  a  normal  sampling  of  our 
individuals  in  each  age-group. 

Figure  15  shows  the  increase  in  score  for  each  per- 
centile  at  each  age.  From  Ages  5  to  11  the  curves 
are  fairly  distinct,  with  no  overlapping,  but  from  Age 
11  onwards  there  is  considerable  overlapping  at  the 
upper  and  lower  ends  of  the  curves,  i.  e.,  the  difference 
in  score  from  age  to  age  is  becoming  increasingly  less. 
From  this  graph  we  can  compare  the  percentile  per- 
formance at  any  age  with  that  of  any  other  age.  For 
example,  a  90-percentile  child  of  five  years  makes  a 
score  that  is  about  equal  to  an  80-percentile  child  of 
six  years;  both  of  them  are  equal  to  a  58-percentile 
child  of  seven  or  a  30-percentile  child  of  eight,  a  15- 
percentile  child  of  nine,  a  10-percentile  child  of  ten, 
and  a  child  below  the  10  percentile  in  all  the  higher 
ages.  This  kind  of  comparison  can  be  made  by  read- 
ing horizontally  across  the  graph  at  any  height. 

If  the  results  of  other  tests  were  to  show  the  same 
general  tendencies,  it  might  be  possible  to  make  gen- 
eralizations about  intelligence  of  this  nature,  e.  g.,  a 
very  bright  five-year-old  child  has  the  intelligence  of 
an  average  seven-year-old  child  or  a  dull  nine-year-old 
child,  etc.  Obviously,  a  single  test  is  not  sufficient  to 
allow  of  this  type  of  generalization,  but  merely  points 
the  way  in  which  such  generalization  might  be  made. 

This  presentation  of  the  results  in  percentiles  will 
permit  the  incorporation  of  this  test  into  any  scale 
based  on  the  percentile  method. 


76 


THE    PICTURE    COMPLETION   TEST 


FIGURE  15 


NORMS  77 

Year-Scale  Norms 

In  case  the  test  might  prove  suitable  for  inclusion 
in  a  year  scale,  we  present  below  the  necessary  values. 
We  have  taken  the  arbitrary  75  per  cent  standard  for 
a  year  scale — a  standard  which  we  believe  the  best  in 
dealing  with  a  test  of  this  type.2  The  lowest  score 
made  by  the  upper  75  per  cent  is  taken  as  the  year 
scale  value  and  the  age  interval  for  any  one  age  ex- 
tends from  a  point  midway  between  this  score  and  the 
score  of  the  age  below  to  a  point  midway  between  this 
score  and  the  score  of  the  age  above.  These  intervals 
have  been  determined  from  the  25  percentile  column 
in  Table  XLIX.  These  limiting  scores,  or  age  inter- 
vals, are  as  follows: 

Age  56  78  9  10 

Score         5-38      39-101       102-183       184-272      273-324      325-359 

Age  11  12  13  14  15  Ad. 

Score    360-381    382-409    410-436    437-441     442-449    450  and  over 

That  is  to  say,  all  children  who  make  scores  of  from 
about  5  to  38  are  to  be  given  five-year-old  credit;  all 
children  making  scores  from  39  to  101  are  to  be  given 
five-  and  six-year-old  credit;  those  between  102  and 
183  receive  five-,  six-  and  seven-year-old  credit;  and 
so  on  up  to  age  fifteen,  where  those  who  make  442  or 
better  receive  a  "pass"  at  each  year  from  five  to  fifteen, 
inclusive. 

The  presentation  of  our  results  in  the  form  of  medi- 
ans, percentiles  and  year  intervals  makes  possible  the 
incorporation  of  this  test  into  any  type  of  scale  or 
group  of  tests  in  general  use  at  the  present  time. 


2  For  a  discussion  of  standards  for  year  scales  and  of  the  way  in 
which  a  test  of  this  kind  can  be  incorporated  into  a  scale,  see  Pintner, 
R.,  and  Paterson,  D.  G.,  A  Scale  of  Performance  Tests,  D.  Appleton 
and  Company,  1917. 


CHAPTER  VII 

SEX,  SOCIAL  STATUS,  AND  SCHOOL  STANDING 

The  differences  in  the  scores  of  the  children  accord- 
ing to  their  sex,  according  to  the  social  status  of  their 
parents,  and  according  to  their  school  standing  have 
been  briefly  investigated.  It  is  not  the  intention  of 
the  writers  to  enter  into  an  exhaustive  study  of  this 
question,  but  it  seemed  desirable  to  study  the  influence 
of  these  three  factors,  particularly  of  the  last  two. 
There  are  an  increasing  number  of  studies  showing 
the  difference  in  general  intelligence  between  children 
from  better  class  homes  and  children  from  poor  homes.1 
If  the  same  difference  were  to  be  found  in  this  one  test, 
it  was  felt  that  it  would  give  added  reliability  to  the 
test  as  a  test  of  intelligence.  In  the  same  way,  some 
idea  of  how  the  accelerated  and  the  retarded  pupils 
performed  the  test  might  increase  our  confidence  in 
it,  if  the  test  showed  a  difference  in  the  performances 
of  these  two  groups. 

Sex  Differences 

No  minute  analysis  was  made  of  the  sex  differences 
in  this  test;  it  was  deemed  sufficient  to  find  the  medi- 
ans for  the  boys  and  the  girls  at  each  age. 

The  median  scores  are  presented  in  Table  L,  and 
Figure  16  shows  the  same  facts  graphically.  From 
the  table  we  see  that  the  median  for  the  boys  is  greater 
than  the  median  for  the  girls  for  Ages  5,  7,  8,  13,  and 
for  adults,  while  the  median  for  the  girls  is  higher  at 
the  remaining  ages.  From  the  graph  it  will  be  seen 


1  Yerkes,  R.  M.,  Bridges,  J.  W.,  and  Hardwick,  R.  S.,  A  Point  Scale 
for  Measuring  Mental  Ability.  Warwick  and  York,  1915.  Also, 
Bridges,  J.  W.,  and  Coler,  L.,  The  Relation  of  Intelligence  to  Social 
Status.  Psych.  Review,  24,  1917,  1-31. 


78 


SEX,    SOCIAL   STATUS  AND   SCHOOL   STANDING          79 


TABLE  L. 

Sex  Differences 
MEDIAN  SCORES 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Ad. 

Boys  

180 

140 

?SO 

3S4 

396 

434 

448 

503 

514 

515 

509 

546 

Girls  

34 

173 

??9 

3?? 

4?S 

473 

455 

51? 

503 

515 

567 

515 

that  the  two  curves  cross  and  re-cross  each  other 
several  times,  showing  no  constant  and  uniform  sex 
difference.  The  slight  variations  of  the  medians  at 
each  age  are  evidently  not  due  to  sex.  We  may, 
therefore,  conclude  that  the  test  is  equally  well  adapted 
to  boys  and  to  girls. 

Differences  in  Social  Status 

The  schools  in  which  the  tests  were  made  were 
divided  into  a  good,  a  medium  and  a  poor  school. 
The  good  school,  however,  was  not  very  superior  to 
what  we  have  called  the  medium  school  in  regard  to 
the  social  status  of  the  childrens'  parents.  The  poor 
school  contained  children  from  the  laboring  classes, 
but  could  not  by  any  means  be  considered  the  poorest 
school  in  the  city.  There  are  relatively  few  children 
in  the  medium  school,  so  few  in  fact  that  at  some  ages 
we  omitted  the  median  as  being  too  unreliable. 

The  median  scores  according  to  age  for  the  three 
types  of  school  are  shown  in  Table  LI.  It  will  be 
noted  that  the  medians  for  the  good  and  medium 
schools  are  very  much  alike.  In  fact  at  three  ages 
the  median  for  the  medium  school  is  slightly  above 
the  median  for  the  good  school.  There  is,  then,  no 
radical  difference  between  these  two  schools  on  this 


80 


THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 


::§» 


FIGURE  16 


SEX,    SOCIAL   STATUS  AND   SCHOOL   STANDING          81 


TABLE  LI. 

Social  Status 
MEDIAN  SCORES 


Age 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

Good  

113 

174 

?so 

3SS 

430 

43  S 

4S7 

SOQ 

514 

SIS 

S?7 

Medium  

176 

1QS 

386 

4Q7 

460 

436 

448 

464 

Poor  

76 

1SQ 

?70 

380 

370 

43  S 

401 

430 

441 

440 

test.  On  the  other  hand,  a  comparison  of  the  poor 
with  the  medium  or  good  school  shows  a  decided  dif- 
ference in  medians.  At  every  age  the  medians  of  the 
poor  school  are  below  the  other  medians.  This  is 
shown  strikingly  in  the  curves  on  Figure  17.  At  no 
age  does  the  curve  for  the  poor  school  reach  the  curve 
for  the  good  school.  The  difference  is  uniform  over 
the  whole  curve  and  fairly  well  marked  at  all  ages. 

Racial  Differences 

It  was  thought  that  the  difference  between  colored 
and  white  children  might  be  shown  by  means  of 
medians  at  each  age.  In  our  records,  however,  there 
were  only  36  colored  children  and,  therefore,  age 
medians  would  have  had  no  value.  The  small  num- 
ber of  colored  children  does  not  allow  of  any  important 
conclusions.  We  have  presented  the  facts,  however, 
for  what  they  are  worth.  Table  LII  shows  the  num- 
ber of  colored  children  above  or  below  the  median  for 

TABLE  LII. 

Racial  Differences 

COLORED  CHILDREN — NUMBER  ABOVE  AND  BELOW  MEDIAN 
Age  6     7     8     9   10   11    12   13   14    15   Total 

Above 0013011010          7 

Below 2814434111        29 


82 


THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION  TEST 


m 


m 


m 

•  4- 


FIGURE  17 


SEX,    SOCIAL   STATUS   AND   SCHOOL   STANDING  83 

their  age.  At  no  age  is  there  a  greater  number  of 
colored  children  above  the  median  than  below  the 
median.  Of  the  36  colored  children  tested,  29  fell 
below  the  median  for  then-  respective  ages  and  only  7 
made  scores  better  than  the  median.  On  the  whole, 
therefore,  the  colored  children  are  inferior  to  the  white, 
but  the  extent  of  this  inferiority  has  not  been  exactly 
determined. 

School  Standing 

On  the  whole,  we  may  say  that  the  child  who  is 
older  than  the  average  age  for  his  grade  is  duller  than 
the  average  of  his  age  and  that  the  child  who  is  younger 
than  the  average  age  for  his  grade  is  brighter  than 
the  average.  We  shall  call  the  former  class  of  chil- 
dren retarded  and  the  latter  accelerated.  It  is  by  no 
means  a  foregone  conclusion  that  the  retarded  child 
is  mentally  slow.  Some  retarded  children  have  been 
found  to  test  mentally  bright.  And  similarly,  some 
accelerated  children  are  by  no  means  mentally  bright. 
The  grade  of  a  child  cannot  with  any  certainty  be  taken 
as  an  accurate  index  of  his  intelligence.  There  are 
other  factors  entering  into  a  child's  rate  of  progress 
in  school  beside  his  native  ability.  But  on  the  whole, 
the  accelerated  pupils  represent  the  brighter,  and  the 
retarded  represent  the  duller  pupils. 

If  this  test  is  testing  something  that  enters  into  the 
complex  known  as  general  intelligence,  then  we  should 
expect  on  the  whole  to  find  the  accelerated  doing  bettter 
in  it  than  the  retarded.  We  have  presented  our  results 
by  showing  the  number  of  accelerated  or  retarded  at 
each  age  who  make  scores  above  or  below  the  median 
for  the  age.  We  have  counted  as  normal,  or  "at  age/' 
for  the  grade  as  follows:  Grade  I,  Ages  6-7,  Grade 
II,  Ages  7-8,  and  so  on  to  Grade  X,  Ages  15-16.  All 


84  THE   PICTUKE   COMPLETION   TEST 

children. in  grades  above  the  corresponding  ages  have 
been  counted  accelerated;  all  children  in  grades  below 
the  corresponding  ages  have  been  called  retarded. 
The  results  are  presented  in  Table  LIII. 

TABLE  LIII. 

School  Standing 

NUMBER  OF  ACCELERATED  AND  RETARDED  ABOVE  AND  BELOW  MEDIAN 
Age  6         789        10      11    12     13         14     15  Total 

Accelerated 

Above 7      7     18     10     14     11     14  81 

Below 3294452  29 

Retarded 

Above 2      3      8     11     11      9     14        58 

Below 2      5      7     12     19    22     19     19       105 

The  table  is  to  be  read  as  follows:  At  Age  6  there 
are  7  accelerated  pupils  who  made  scores  on  this  test 
better  than  the  median  score  for  six-year-olds;  there 
are  3  accelerated  pupils  who  made  scores  below  that 
median  and  there  are  no  retarded  pupils.  Under  Age 
10  we  find  18  accelerated  pupils,  of  whom  14  made 
scores  above  the  median  for  ten-year-olds  and  4  made 
scores  below  the  median.  Of  the  10  retarded  pupils  at 
Age  10,  3  made  scores  above  and  7  below  the  median. 
Examining  the  results  for  the  accelerated  pupils,  we 
note  that  at  every  age  a  decidedly  greater  number 
make  scores  above  the  median  than  below.  The  total 
shows  81  making  scores  above  and  only  29  below  the 
median.  That  is,  out  of  a  total  of  110  accelerated 
pupils  74  per  cent  make  scores  above  the  median. 
Turning  now  to  the  retarded  pupils,  we  note  that  at 
every  age  a  greater  number  score  below  than  above 
the  median  for  their  age.  The  total  shows  105  below 
and  only  58  above  the  median.  The  total  number  of 
retarded  is  163,  64  per  cent  of  whom  score  below  the 
median. 


SEX,    SOCIAL   STATUS   AND   SCHOOL   STANDING          85 

In  general,  therefore,  we  find  that  there  is  an  agree- 
ment between  performance  in  this  test  and  school 
standing,  and  it  is  an  agreement  such  as  one  might 
anticipate  in  view  of  what  we  have  said  of  the  differ- 
ences between  the  intelligence  of  the  accelerated  and 
the  retarded  pupils  in  our  schools.  An  absolute  agree- 
ment between  the  results  of  the  test  and  the  school 
standing  was  not  to  be  expected,  and  would  have  been 
suspicious  if  it  had  occurred. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
OTHER  METHODS  OF  SCORING 

Two  other  methods  of  scoring  have  been  used  for 
this  test  in  work  already  published.  These  we  have 
mentioned  in  Chapter  II  and  we  now  propose  to  pre- 
sent our  results  worked  out  according  to  these  two 
methods,  both  for  purposes  of  comparison  with  the 
work  already  done  and  for  a  critical  inspection  of  the 
methods.  These  two  methods  are  (1)  Healy's  Method 
and  (2)  The  Method  of  Right  and  Wrong  Moves,  used 
by  Hall.* 

Healy's  Method 

Healy's  norm  for  children  above  ten  years  is:  not 
more  than  one  logical  and  two  total  errors  with  a  time 
limit  of  five  minutes.  His  list  of  logical  errors  has 
been  given  in  Chapter  IV.  In  another  place  he  says: 
"  At  eleven  years  this  test  should  be  readily  accom- 
plished with  not  more  than  one  or  two  final  errors, 
and  certainly  not  more  than  one  illogical  error.  The 
median  or  average  performance  for  all  in  the  group  of 
those  ordinary  in  ability  above  ten  years,  is  one  final 
error  and  no  illogical  error."2  The  latter  sentence 
would  seem  to  make  his  norm  even  a  little  higher  than 
before. 

We  have  worked  over  our  results  in  the  light  of 
Healy's  norm,  considering  as  passed  all  who  made  not 
more  than  one  logical  and  two  total  errors  (logical  in 
this  connection  means  the  particular  moves  so  desig- 
nated by  Healy).  As  the  results  were  being  compiled, 

1  Hall,  G.,  Eleven  Mental  Tests  Standardized,  Eugenics  and  Social 
Welfare  Bulletin,  No.  V,  State  Board  of  Charities,  N.  Y.,  pp.  74-78. 

2  Healy,  W.,  The  Individual  Delinquent,  Boston,  1915,  Chap.  VII, 
p.  83,  p.  111. 


OTHER  METHODS  OF  SCORING  87 

it  became  obvious  that  Healy's  norm  was  much  too 
severe.  It  occurred  to  us  that  the  time  limit  of  five 
minutes  might  be  one  of  the  reasons.  Therefore,  we 
present  the  results  with  and  without  the  time  limit 
of  five  minutes  suggested  by  Healy. 

TABLE  LIV. 

Number  and  Per  cent.  Passing  at  Healy's  Standard 

Time  Limit  No  Time  Limit 

Age  Number  Per  Cent  Number  Per  Cent 

5...  0000 

6 0  0  0  0 

7 7  4.6  12  8.0 

8 5  3.2  17  11.2 

9 23  15.3  35  23.3 

10 48  32.0  55  36.6 

11 54  33.9  59  37.1 

12 72  47.3  76  50.6 

13 78  52.0  84  56.0 

14 65  59.4  65  59.4 

15 31  59.6  34  65.4 

Adult..  79  59.8  87  65.9 

Table  LIV  shows  the  number  and  per  cent  at  each 
age  who  pass  the  test  according  to  Healy's  norm.  The 
left  half  of  the  table  gives  the  results  with  the  five- 
minute  time  limit,  the  right  half  with  no  time  limit. 
The  table  is  to  be  read  as  follows:  At  Ages  5  and  6 
no  children  passed  the  test;  7  children,  or  4.6  per  cent, 
of  the  seven-year-olds  passed  if  a  time  limit  is  adhered 
to,  and  12  or  8  per  cent  if  no  time  limit  is  used,  and 
so  on  with  the  other  ages.  It  will  be  noted  that  dis- 
regarding the  time  limit  increases  the  percentage  of 
passes  only  slightly. 

According  to  Healy's  standard  all  normal  children 
should  pass  the  test  at  Age  11  and  above.  At  Age 
11  our  table  shows  only  34  per  cent  (time  limit)  or 
37  per  cent  (no  time  limit)  passing  the  test.  It  is,  of 
course,  impossible  to  conceive  of  about  60  per  cent  of 
our  eleven-year-olds  as  below  normal.  Continuing  to 


88  THE    PICTURE    COMPLETION   TEST 

the  twelve-year-olds,  we  find  47  per  cent  (time  limit) 
or  51  per  cent  (no  time  limit)  passing  the  test.  Healy's 
norm  is  obviously  too  high  for  twelve-year-olds.  Con- 
tinuing up  to  the  13,  14,  15,  and  adult  age  groups,  we 
find  much  the  same  state  of  affairs.  Healy's  norm  is 
much  too  severe  for  all  ages.  It  is  an  example  of 
inadequate  standardization  leading  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  spurious  norm.  The  danger  of  this  in  actual 
clinical  work  is  obvious  and  real.  That  the  danger  is 
real  can  be  shown  from  certain  conclusions  drawn  by 
Porter,3  who  evidently  has  Healy's  norm  in  mind.  We 
shall  reserve  a  discussion  of  these  cases  until  we  have 
presented  the  results  for  the  other  method  of  scoring,  so 
as  to  be  able  to  interpret  Porter's  results  in  the  light  of 
our  norms. 

Method  of  Right  and  Wrong  Moves 

In  this  method  of  scoring,  suggested  by  Hall,  only 
the  nine  correct  moves  are  taken  into  account.  A  move 
is  either  right  or  wrong.  The  results  for  our  own 
data  according  to  this  method  are  shown  in  Table  LV. 
This  table  shows  a  distribution  of  the  cases  according 

TABLE  LV. 

Percentage  Distribution  of  Number  of  Correct  Moies 
NUMBER  OP  CORRECT  MOVES 

Age      0123456789 


5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 
11 

35.0 
18.6 
8.0 
3.9 

Q.7 

15.0 
24.6 
18.6 
7.2 
2.7 
2.0 
0.6 

15.0 
22.0 
18.0 
10.5 
2.7 
2.0 
1  9 

15 
16 
17. 
11. 
10. 
9. 
4. 

0 

5 

3 
8 
6 
3 

4 

10.0 
8.0 
13.3 

17.8 
19.3 
10.6 
8  2 

10.0 
6.0 
10.0 
16.4 
14.6 
16.6 
17.0 

3.3 
5.3 
18.4 
25.3 
18.7 
28.3 

0.7 
4.0 
9.2 
12.7 
23.3 
15.7 

4.7 
3.3 
8.0 
12.0 
17.6 

0.7 
1.3 

4.0 
5.3 
6.3 

12. 
13. 
14 

0.7 
0.7 

6^9 

2.7 
2.0 
0.9 

3. 

2. 
0. 

3 

0 
9 

10.0 
6.0 
3.7 

13.3 
8.7 
12.0 

19.3 
18.7 
16.5 

20.0 
28.0 
33.0 

22.8 
21.3 
22.0 

8.0 
12.7 
10.0 

15. 

Ad. 

1.9 
1.5 

1. 
3. 

9 
0 

5.8 
3.8 

11.5 
6.8 

13.5 
15.2 

21.0 
23.4 

27.0 
35.6 

17.3 
10.6 

3  Porter,  F.,   Difficulties  in  the   Interpretation  of  Mental  Tests — 
Types  and  Examples,  The  Psych.  Clinic,  9:  1915. 


OTHER  METHODS  OF  SCORING  89 

to  the  number  of  correct  moves.  It  is  to  be  read  as 
follows:  At  5  years  35  per  cent  of  the  cases  made  no 
correct  moves,  15  per  cent  made  one  correct  move,  15 
cent  made  two  correct,  15  per  cent  three  correct,  10 
per  cent  four  correct,  10  per  cent  five  correct,  and  no 
child  made  more  than  five  correct  moves.  The  other 
ages  are  to  be  read  in  a  similar  way.  The  table  shows 
the  natural  tendency  for  the  number  of  correct  moves 
to  increase  with  the  higher  ages.  The  percentage  of 
persons  at  each  age  who  made  a  perfect  performance 
can  be  seen  in  the  last  vertical  column.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  Ages  15  and  13  show  the  highest 
percentages  for  absolutely  correct  performances. 

Table  LVI  presents  the  medians  and  25th  and  75th 
percentiles  for  our  data  for  this  method  of  scoring. 

TABLE  LVI. 

Number  of  Correct  Moves 

Number 
Age  of  Cases         25%ile          Median        75%ile          Quartile 

5..  20  0  1.5  3  1.5 

6 150  1  2  3  1.0 

7 150  1  3  4^5  1.75 

8 152  3  4  6  1.5 

9 150  4  5.5  6-7  1.25 

10 150  4-5  6  7  1.25 

11 159  5  6  7  1.0 

12 150  5  7  8  1.5 

13 150  6  7  8  1.0 

14 109  6  7  8  1.0 

15 52  6  7  8  1.0 

Adult 132  6  7  8  1.0 

The  first  vertical  column  gives  the  age,  the  next  the 
number  of  cases,  the  next  the  25  percentile  score,  the 
next  the  median,  the  next  the  75  percentile  score  and 
the  last  the  quartile,  i.  e.f  the  semi-interquartile  range, 
which  gives  an  indication  of  the  amount  of  variation 
among  the  middle  fifty  per  cent.  The  median  shows 


90  THE    PICTUKE    COMPLETION   TEST 

a  steady  increase  from  1.5  (interpolated)  correct  moves 
at  age  five  to  7  correct  moves  at  Ages  12  to  adult, 
inclusive.  For  a  rough  method  of  scoring  these 
medians  will  suffice,  but  they  cannot  compare  with 
the  system  adopted  in  this  work,  since  no  regard  is 
paid  to  the  type  of  errors  made.  Two  children,  both 
of  whom  get  seven  moves  right  and  two  wrong  cannot 
be  differentiated  by  this  method,  whereas  the  two 
wrong  moves  in  each  case  may  be  indicative  of  very 
different  types  of  ability. 

Our  data  may  now  be  used  for  a  comparison  with 
Hall's  results.  Hall  presents  her  results  in  number  of 
errors.  Subtracting  our  medians  from  nine,  we  get 
the  median  number  of  errors  and  we  can  compare  our 
median  errors  with  Hall's  median  errors  for  the  six 
age-groups  tested  by  her.  This  comparison  is  as 
follows : 

Age  Hall's  Median  Our  Median 

777 
855 
9  3  3.5 

10  4  3 

11  3  3 

12  3  2 

The  similarity  of  the  results  is  striking;  the  only 
difference  occurs  at  Ages  10  and  12,  where  it  amounts 
to  one  error.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  Hall  tested 
only  30  children  at  each  age  and  that  her  twelve- 
year-old  children  are  notably  poor  on  all  the  tests  re- 
ported by  her.  We  think  we  may  say  that  our  median 
is  a  better  index  of  twelve-year-old  ability  in  this  test. 

In  the  light  of  these  two  methods  of  scoring,  we 
may  now  examine  Porter's  special  cases,  which  were 
evidently  published  before  any  other  norms,  with  the 
exception  of  Healy's,  were  obtainable.  We  are  able 


OTHER  METHODS  OF  SCORING  91 

to  criticise  the  results  of  Porter  only  from  the  point 
of  view  of  number  of  errors,  since  we  have  made  no 
separate  tabulation  for  the  number  of  logical  and  il- 
logical errors  as  defined  by  Healy.  We  have  chosen 
examples  showing  close  agreement  and  great  disparity 
with  our  interpretation. 

Case  3.  Chron.  Age  14.  Completion  Test — 7 
errors.  Porter — "  exceedingly  stupid  performance." 
Our  standard — Six-year-old  ability. 

Case  8.  Chron.  Age  12.  Binet — fails  on  one 
twelve-year  test.  Completion  Test — 0  errors.  Por- 
ter— "  rather  a  slow  performance."  Our  standard — 
better  than  fifteen-year-old  abilitv.  This  is  a  surpris- 
ingly good  record  for  a  twelve-year-old,  of  which  fact 
Porter  seems  to  take  little  account.  The  record  puts 
the  case  among  the  highest  8  per  cent  of  our  twelve- 
year-old  children. 

Case  9.  Chron.  Age  10.  Binet  9.2,  "  almost  up  to 
age."  Completion  Test — 3  errors.  Porter — "done 
rather  slowly."  Our  standard — ten-  or  eleven-year- 
old  ability.  This  is  exactly  what  we  should  expect 
from  a  boy  of  this  age. 

Case  10.  Chron.  Age  16.  Binet  10.  Completion 
Test — 1  error.  Porter — "distinctly  well  done."  Our 
standard — above  fifteen-year-old  ability,  up  to  expecta- 
tion for  a  boy  of  his  age.  Note  discrepancy  between 
Binet  test  and  Picture  Completion  test. 

Case  11.  A  deaf  boy.  Chron.  Age  17.  No  Binet. 
Completion  Test — 0  errors.  Porter  makes  no  com- 
ment. Our  standard — above  fifteen-year-old  ability. 
A  remarkably  good  performance  for  a  seventeen-year- 
old  deaf  boy. 

Case  17.  Chron.  Age  11.  Binet  7.8.  Completion 
Test — 6  errors.  Porter  makes  no  comment.  Our 


•  92  THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 

standard — 7-year  ability.  Just  what  we  should  expect 
in  a  boy  of  that  mentality  according  to  the  Binet. 

Other  cases  show  a  similar  agreement  or  discrepancy 
between  our  interpretation  of  the  result  of  the  test 
and  the  comments  offered  by  Porter.  At  times  we 
feel  that  her  interpretation  of  the  result  of  the  test  is 
totally  inadequate  and  wrong,  and  all  the  way  through 
at  best  we  can  have  little  better  than  good  guess-work 
without  an  adequate  standardization  for  purpose  of 
comparison. 

This  discussion  of  other  methods  of  evaluating  per- 
formances in  this  test  leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that 
they  are  lacking  in  many  respects  in  comparison  with 
the  method  of  scoring  proposed  by  the  authors.  Both 
Healy's  norm  and  the  evaluation  by  number  of  errors 
are  too  crude  for  a  complex  test  of  this  nature.  There 
are  so  many  possibilities  that  we  ought  to  score  these 
according  to  their  ease  or  difficulty,  and  thus  differen- 
tiate between  many  different  types  of  performance. 


CHAPTER  IX 


THE  TIME 

As  stated  previously,  a  record  was  kept  of  the  exact 
time  taken  by  each  observer  to  complete  the  test. 
The  time  was  taken  for  the  first  period,  i.  e.}  until  the 
observer  had  signified  that  he  had  finished,  and  also 
for  the  second  period,  i.  e.,  at  the  completion  of  the 
entire  performance  after  he  had  been  asked  by  the  ex- 
aminer whether  he  wished  to  change  any  of  the  blocks. 
In  this  work  the  results  for  the  complete  performance 
only  have  been  used. 

For  each  age  a  distribution  of  time  in  minutes  was 
made.  A  summary  of  this  distribution  is  given  in 
Table  LVII.  In  this  and  in  Table  LVIII  the  time 

TABLE  LVII. 

Percentage  Distribution  of  Cases  for  Each  Period  of  Time 
TIME  IN  MINUTES 


Age 

—  i 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16- 
17 

18 

5 

5.0 

30.0 

25.0 

20.0 

10.0 

10.0 

6 

1.3 

6.0 

12.6 

23.3 

16.6 

14.0 

5.3 

6.7 

2.7 

2.7 

3.3 

1.3 

2.0 

0.7 

0.7 

0.7 

7 

4.7 

8.7 

17.3 

18.0 

13.3 

10.0 

12.6 

5.3 

6.0 

3.3 

1.3 

0.7 

8 

2.0 

11.8 

19.8 

15.1 

16.5 

13.8 

7.2 

5.9 

1.3 

1.3 

2.0 

2.6 

0.7 

9 

16.6 

28.0 

17.3 

12.0 

8.7 

6.0 

4.0 

2.0 

2.7 

1.3 

0.7 

0.7 

10 

5.3 

22.0 

29.3 

22.0 

10.0 

6.7 

2.0 

2.0 

0.7 

11 

3.8 

28.4 

30.8 

18.2 

11.3 

3.1 

2.5 

1.3 

0.6 

12 

6.7 

31.3 

30.0 

21.3 

6.7 

3.3 

0.7 

13 

10.0 

38.0 

28.7 

16.6 

2.0 

3.3 

0.7 

0.7 

14 

0.9 

1.8 

35.9 

30.2 

10.1 

2.7 

1.8 

15 

11.5 

50.0 

27.0 

3.8 

5.8 

1.9 

Adult 

14.1 

49.0 

17.4 

8.7 

7.6 

2.2 

1.1 

intervals  are  all  expressed  in  minutes.  Minus  one 
means  all  fractions  of  a  minute  from  0  seconds  to  59 
seconds;  one  means  all  records  from  one  minute  up  to 

93 


94  THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 

one  minute  and  59  seconds,  and  so  on.  It  was  deemed 
unnecessary,  as  the  results  will  show,  to  give  fractions 
of  a  minute. 

In  Table  LVII  the  percentage  of  cases  at  each  age 
is  shown  according  to  the  time  taken.  Glancing  down 
the  vertical  columns  it  will  be  noted  that  practically  no 
observers  finished  before  one  minute,  and  not  more 
than  14.1  per  cent  in  any  one  age-group  finished  within 
one  minute  and  59  seconds.  In  the  third  column  (2 
minutes  to  2  minutes  and  59  seconds)  we  note  at  each 
age  a  fairly  large  percentage  of  cases;  the  lowest  is  8 
per  cent  at  Age  7  and  the  highest  50  per  cent  at  Age 
15.  In  the  3-minute  column  we  find  again  a  large 
percentage  of  cases  at  each  age;  the  lowest  is  17  per 
cent  at  Age  7  and  adults,  and  the  highest  30  per  cent 
at  Ages  11,  12,  and  14.  In  the  4-minute  column  the 
percentage  on  the  whole  drops  off  as  compared  with 
the  two  preceding  columns.  In  the  five  minute  col- 
umn the  percentages  are  on  the  whole  still  lower. 
In  the  remaining  columns  the  percentages  continue  to 
decrease  very  rapidly.  From  this  point  on,  there  are 
always  zero  percentages  at  each  age. 

There  is  therefore  little  difference  in  the  time  taken 
to  complete  the  test  at  each  age.  The  table  shows  us 
that  in  general  there  is  a  slight  tendency  for  longer 
periods  of  time  among  the  lower  ages.  This  tendency 
is  by  no  means  uniform.  The  largest  scattering  of 
cases  occurs  at  Age  6.  The  general  impression  ob- 
tained from  the  table  is  the  close  similarity  of  the 
time  period  required  to  complete  the  test  from  age  to 
age.  The  number  of  the  cases  in  the  2-  and  3-minute 
columns  seems  greater  at  all  ages  than  the  number  in 
the  other  columns.  This  can  be  seen  from  the  follow- 
ing summary.  Taking  the  cases  that  took  from  2  to 


THE   TIME  95 

3  minutes  and  59  seconds  at  Age  5  to  Adult,  we  have 
the  following  series  of  percentages:  55.0,  35.9,  26.0, 
31.6,  44.6,  51.3,  59.2,  61.3,  66.7,  66.1,  77.0,  66.4. 

These  figures  show  the  greater  uniformity  in  tune 
period  as  we  proceed  to  the  upper  ages.  Age  5  is 
represented  by  only  20  cases  and  this  suggests  that 
the  relatively  large  percentage  shown  in  the  figures 
above  is  probably  due  to  chance.  These  figures  indi- 
cate the  greater  scattering  of  cases  over  the  longer 
time  periods  in  the  lower  ages.  A  glance  at  the  first 
two  columns  of  Table  LVII  will  show  that  the  scatter- 
ing is  in  the  main  over  the  longer  tune  periods  and  not 
over  the  shorter,  since  a  very  small  percentage  of  cases 
at  any  age  complete  the  test  within  two  minutes. 

Table  LVIII  shows  the  medians  and  percentiles  for 
the  tune  at  each  age.  Column  1  gives  the  age,  Column 

TABLE  LVIII. 

Medians  and  Percentiles  for  Time  at  Each  Age 
TIME  IN  MINUTES 

Age  Number         Median          25%ile  75%ile  Total 

Range 

5..  20  3  2  5  Ito    8 

6 150  4  3  6  —Ito  18 

7 150  5  3  7  Ito  12 

8 152  5  3  6  Ito  14 

9 150  4  3  6  2  to  13 

10 150  3  2  4  Ito    9 

11 159  3  2  4  Ito  10 

12 150  3  2  4  Ito    S 

13 150  3  2  4  1  to    8 

14 109  2  2  3  —Ito    7 

15 52  2  2  3  Ito   8 

Adult 92  2  2  3  Ito  12 

2  the  number  of  cases,  Column  3  the  median  tune  in 
minutes,  Column  4  the  25  percentile,  Column  5  the 
75  percentile,  and  the  last  column  the  range  in  time 
from  shortest  to  longest.  The  medians  vary  from 


96  THE   PICTURE   COMPLETION   TEST 

age  to  age  very  slightly.  Again  we  see  the  tendency 
for  the  median  to  decrease  as  we  approach  the  higher 
ages.  The  percentiles  bear  out  what  was  noted  in 
the  table  of  distribution,  that  the  greater  number  of 
cases  lie  within  relatively  narrow  limits  of  time.  The 
range  indicates  the  extreme  variations. 

It  is  obvious  from  this  discussion  that  we  cannot 
take  the  length  of  time  as  a  measure  of  the  individual's 
excellence  in  the  test.  The  distinct  differences  in 
score  denoting  the  excellence  of  the  performance  as  we 
proceed  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  age-group  are  so 
marked  as  to  make  any  difference  in  time  of  no  conse- 
quence in  this  test.  It  would  seem  to  be  entirely 
unjust  to  penalize  a  performance  because  of  the  length 
of  time  taken  or  to  award  more  credit  for  a  performance 
somewhat  quicker  than  the  average.  The  differences 
in  tune  from  age  to  age  are  not  sufficient  to  warrant 
this.  It  may  be  desirable  for  practical  purposes  to 
limit  the  time  to  eight  or  to  ten  minutes.  This  limita- 
tion is  to  be  recommended  in  the  use  of  the  test  in  a 
scale  of  performance  tests.  It  would  be  a  justifiable 
procedure,  since  we  must  remember  that  the  examinee 
is  doing  many  other  tests  and  is  not  to  be  fatigued  by 
any  one  test.  If  a  limit  of  10  minutes  were  imposed 
very  few  of  the  cases  would  be  affected  by  it,  since 
never  more  than  5  per  cent  of  the  cases  at  any  age 
took  more  time. 

If  we  examine  a  little  more  closely  the  cases  that 
took  ten  or  more  minutes  to  complete  the  test,  we 
find  that  the  majority  of  these  occur  in  the  lower  ages. 
All  but  two  occur  at  nine  years  or  below.  The  excel- 
lence of  the  performances  taking  ten  or  more  minutes 
is  as  follows:  At  Age  5  there  were  no  cases;  at  Age  6 
there  were  13  cases,  of  which  10  scored  above  average 


THE   TIME  97 

for  that  age  and  3  below;  at  Age  7  there  were  8  cases, 
4  above  and  4  below  the  average  score;  at  Age  8  there 
were  10  cases,  6  above  and  4  below  the  average  score; 
at  Age  9  there  were  8  cases,  6  above  and  2  below  the 
average  score;  at  Age  10  there  were  no  cases;  at  Age 
11  there  was  one  case  below  the  average  score;  at 
Ages  12  to  15  there  were  no  cases;  among  the  adults 
there  was  one  case,  and  it  fell  below  the  average  score. 
This  seems  to  indicate  that  there  is  little  relation 
between  the  long  time  taken  and  the  score  made. 
Most  of  these  long-time  cases  scored  somewhat  better 
than  the  average  for  their  age.  This  fact  again  em- 
phasizes the  uselessness  of  the  time  taken  as  a  measure 
of  the  excellence  of  the  performance.  The  conclusion 
is,  therefore,  that  time  should  not  be  taken  into  ac- 
count in  evaluating  the  excellence  of  a  performance 
hi  the  test.  The  only  restriction  in  regard  to  time 
that  might  arise  would  be  a  practical  one,  and,  if  a 
tune  limit  of  10  minutes  were  imposed,  some  slight 
penalty  would  attach  to  those  taking  too  long  a  time. 


CHAPTER  X 

CONCLUSIONS 

The  justification  for  this  lengthy  and  minute  analysis 
of  one  test  lies,  we  believe,  in  the  increasing  demands 
made  by  clinical  psychology  for  more  effective  and 
reliable  measuring  instruments.  It  seems  to  the 
authors  that  these  demands  cannot  be  met  except  by 
very  detailed  studies  of  individual  tests.  Studies  of 
this  sort  are  beginning  to  appear  on  all  sides.  The 
time  of  rough  and  ready  standardization  is  passed, 
because  we  are  beginning  to  realize  its  dangers  and 
because  we  are  expecting  a  test  to  give  us  more  than  a 
vague  indication  of  a  child's  ability. 

It  ought  not  to  be  necessary  to  say  that  this  test  as 
standardized  by  us  must  take  its  place  simply  as  one 
among  a  group  of  tests  used  for  clinical  purposes.  No 
child's  mentality  can  be  described  on  the  basis  of  a 
single  test,  however  accurately  standardized. 

A  summary  of  the  chief  results  of  this  study  follows: 

(1)  The  test  has  proved  to  be  excellently  adapted 
for  children  at  all  ages  and  to  some  extent  for  adults. 

(2)  The  method  of  presentation  used  by  Healy  has 
been  found  to  meet  fully  the  requirements  of  practical 
testing. 

(3)  The  1520  subjects  tested  have  proved  sufficient 
to  determine  a  method  of  scoring  and  to  arrive  at 
reliable  norms  for  Ages  6  to  14,  inclusive. 

(4)  The  method  of  scoring  has  been  determined 
from  a  purely  objective  standpoint.    It  depends  upon 
the  relative  ease  or  difficulty  of  any  of  the  369  possible 
moves.    The  ease  or  difficulty  of  a  move  is  determined 
by  the  number  of  individuals  that  make  that  move. 


CONCLUS'ONS  99 

(5)  Age-norms  and  percentile  norms  for  each  age 
have  been  established,  and  the  number  of  subjects 
tested  at  each  age  is  large  enough  to  insure  their  reli- 
ability.   These  norms  can  be  used  for  purposes  of  a 
year  scale,  a  point  scale,  or  a  percentile  scale. 

(6)  The  test  is  equally  well  adapted  to  boys  and  to 
girls.     Neither  sex  shows  decided  or  consistent  super- 
iority over  the  other  in  the  performance  of  the  test. 

(7)  Children  from  a  good  or  medium  social  environ- 
ment are  able  to  perform  the  test  somewhat  better 
than  children  from  a  poor  environment.    This  cor- 
responds   to    the    difference    in    general    intelligence 
between  such  groups  shown  by  other  tests. 

(8)  The  accelerated  pupils  did  better  than  the  re- 
tarded pupils,  which  shows  that  the  test  is  differenti- 
ating between  good  and  poor  pupils. 

(9)  The  other  methods  of  scoring  that  have  been 
proposed  up  to  the  present  tune  do  not  do  adequate 
justice  to  the  test.    They  are  too  rough  for  the  finer 
differentiations  that  are  possible  with  it. 

(10)  The  tune  taken  to  perform  the  test  has  been 
found  to  be  relatively  unimportant  as  a  measure  of 
ability,  so  much  so  as  not  to  have  been  taken  into 
account  in  scoring  the  performance. 

(11)  The  method  of  scoring  is  justified  by  the  high 
correlations  between  the  rank  in  order  of  difficulty 
for  each  age  and  the  rank  for  the  total  group  of  sub- 
jects tested. 

(12)  Correlations  between  the  performance  at  each 
age  and  that  at  every  other  age  show  that  the  difficulty 
of  the  various  moves  is  roughly  the  same  for  children 
of  all  ages. 


INDEX 


Binet,  4,  11 
Bobertag,  5 
Bridges,  5,  78 
Brown,  3 
Burt,  3,  11 

Cattell,  2 
Coler,  78 
Completion  Method,  Ebbing- 

haus,  9 
Trabue,  9 
Correlation,  2,  59ff . 
Cube  Test,  6 

Ebbinghaus,  9 

Farrand,  2 

Fernald,  9 

Fisher,  7 

Form-Board,  Seguin,  5,  6 

Galton,  3 
Gamble,  13 
Goddard,  5 

Hall,  86,  88,  90 

Hardwick,  5,  78 

Hart,  2 

Healy,  6,  9,  12,  13,  14,  15,  16, 

19,  21,  22,  39,  40,  72,  86,  87, 

88,  90,  91,  92,  98 
Henri,  4 

Intelligence  Quotient,  7 
Coefficient  of,  7 


Kirkpatrick,  2 
Knox,  5 
Krueger,  2 
Kuhlman,  5 

Logical    errors,    discussion    of, 
39,57 

Moves,  Rank  of,  62ff. 

Norms,  70ff. 
Year  Scale,  77 

Otis,  5 

Paterson,  77 
Percentile  Method,  7,  8 
Percentiles,  70ff. 

Graphs  of,  74ff. 

Picture   Completion  Test,   Au- 
thor's results  for,  22ff. 

Delinquents  tested  by,  13 

Description  of,  9ff. 

Healy's  results  for,  12ff. 

Hall's  results  for,  14ff. 

Psychopathic  cases  tested  by, 
13 

University  students  tested 

by,  13 

Pintner,  6,  7,  77 
Porter,  88,  90,  91,  92 
Procedure,  Method  of,  16ff. 

Race,  Differences  due  to,  81f. 
Recording,  Method  of,  17f. 


100 


INDEX 


101 


Sanctis,  de,  5 

Scale,  Binet-Simon,  4 

Knox,  5 

Sanctis,  5 

Terman,  5 

Yerkes-Bridges,  5 
Schmitt,  6 
School  Standing,   Influence  of, 

83ff. 

Scores,    Determination   of   the, 
52ff. 

Distribution  of,  71,  72 

Table  of,  58 

Scoring,    Healy's    Method    of, 
86ff. 

Method  of  Right  and  Wrong 
Moves,  88ff. 

Methods  of,  86ff. 
Sex,  Differences  due  to,  78f. 
Simon,  4 
Simpson,  3 
Social    Status,    Differences    in, 

79ff. 


Spaces  and  Blocks,  Contrac- 
tions for,  22  (footnote) 

Spearman,  2 

Standardization,  problem  of,  3,  6 

Stern,  5,  7,  11 

Subjects,  Description  and  num- 
ber of,  19ff. 

Sylvester,  5,  7 

Terman,  5 
Thorndike,  72 
Time,  93ff. 
Trabue,  9 

Wallin,  6,  7 
Wells,  2 
Whipple,  2,  6 
Whitley,  3 
Wissler,  3 
Woodworth,  2 
Woolley,  7,  8 

Yerkes,  5,  8,  78 


372162 


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